Mud
by Amatera
Summary: Sometimes, rain brings some presents you don't want to lose. Alternate Plotline, Not too ninja based, and some sillyness and mainly DeiSaku Deidara x Sakura
1. The corpsetripping game

Note: Before reading, you should know two things - English isn't my mother language. And second: This is just a collection of silly ideas me and my friends had. I don't own Naruto, but I think you know that, heheh..

-----

Wet ground is nasty. Really nasty. Being somewhere nowhere also.

These phrases did some pretty circles in Deidara's mind, as he went on, cursing the fact that always when he had the chance to have some days alone, without anything that troubled him (beside wearing the goofy Akatsuki robe, which was also oversized) it was either raining or he got lost in nowhere.

As if it wasn't embarrassing enough to be an S-Rank criminal that gets lost all the time, no, now he was a lost criminal, wet to the bones and he looked like he participated in a nice mud-wrestling-match.

As mud.

Squeezing water out of the drenches clothes, he flung another curse at the cloudy sky.

It wasn't even autumn. There's no need for rain in the summertime.

Or at least little need.

The wet sandals made squishing sounds as he walked on, always searching a semi-dry way through the forest.

Actually he didn't really care where he was, as long as it was far away from Hidden Village of Rock. Maybe he walked through lands where Rain was. That would explain everything, even if it wasn't a pleasent explaination.

The day started sunny and dry, and without the worry about getting lost. And actually, he was too lazy to speed up his movements now. The rain made the wind cold, and running around like an idiot would only mean that he begged for something like a fever.

Appraoaching a river slowly, he felt the rain getting slighlty lighter.

Why did the weather behave like world's ending only when he was alone?

_Because you have the talent to be at the wrong place at the wrong time, idiot._

Deidara made a rather annoyed face and tried to chase his inner self off.

"Un...you're like that too." he said, and being aware of the fact that he spoke to thin air, and that it must seem like he's talking to invisible people (even if sometimes he wished for invisible friends more than to be around the other guys of Akatsuki), he moved his hand as if chasing off a fly and got on with his way through the misty rain, not too happy that he left the safety of the trees to follow the river.

_Moving along the river might get you back on some kind of way._

"I'm getting wet, un."

_You shouldn't behave that girly, just because of some raindrops!_

"I'm not." Deidara shook the wet hat that he carried under his arm. He couldn't make it stay on his head anyway. "Un, you really annoy me, you know."

_Hello, anybody there? You are one of the most wanted criminals around, and you take a walk in the rain as if there's nothing to worry about?_

"Un." Deidara imagined folding his inner self into a little origami bird and putting it into the little, dark corner somewhere at the end of his mind, trying to get rid of this voice of reason he heard from time to time.

'Really', he thought, it must be dorky to see me talking with absolutely noone.

As he wanted to get on with his way, his feet hit something soft on the ground.

He sighted in slight disgust. "Unn..not only getting lost, also almost tripping over a corpse...lucky day, indeed."

As he attempted to take a wide step over the muddy, face-down lying body, he heard his inner self crawling back into his mind again.

_So you are not going to look at it?_

"Un: why should I?"

_Maybe it's interesting. You know you want to look._

Giving in to his childish curiosity, he got down to take a look at the dirty body, rolling it around.

His eyes got wide with surprise as he saw the face of the girl that he just rolled out of the mud near the river. It was the kunoichi with the peachy pink hair that was always around the kyuubi, wasn't it?

Though her hair was longer again and worn in a braid, and she looked older from the first view, he was sure she was, not at least because she wore a Leaf Headprotector on a dirty red sash as a hairband.

"Un, great." He rolled his eyes and looked at her again, noticing the flat breathing.

Without a doubt, the kunoichi was only unconscious.

Shrugging and getting up from the muddy ground again, his next attempt to go on was yet another distraction from Inner Deidara.

_Heartless Bastard _it laughed _you can't let her alone, look, her head took some damage. She's from leaf, she's a friend of the Kyuubi, but what does it matter? _

"Un, what DO I look like, a charity lady or whatever?" Deidara muttered and crossed his arms, looking as the soaked head splashed amazing amouts of water around. "She's a medic, she can care for herself, un."

_She can care as long as she's awake, at least move her out of the mud._

"I'm no charity lady, un." He said, moving around and looking at the dirty kunoichi again. His annoyed looks hid the fact that he gave in again, doing whatever his inner self said.

So he pulled her out of the mud by her arms, not acting too gentle, and finally setting her down under a leafless, dead tree.

'Irony', he though with a cackle.

Sitting down on a nearby rock, he watched the peach-haired kunoichi as she layed on the mossy, soaked ground.

Actually he wondered how it came that she was lying around in the mud, somewhere near nowhere (hopefully in Rain, so he could find a way to small village and get some rest at an inn, the kind where they don't ask too much), unconscious und with a bleeding wound on her interesting big forehead.

_Don't you know her name?_

"Un, no I don't! And why are you always present when I have precious time for myself?"

_You know why._

"And since when do you have a voice of your own, you belong to me afterall, un!"

_Earth to Deidara..if it weren't for me, you would basically get lost on the way to you bathtub._

"Right, and that why I am stuck here, in the middle of nowhere, with a kunoichi that will surely get me into trouble, great, un."

He placed his chin in his hand, squeezing water out of his bangs with the other. The rain had stopped, and slowly, the sky lightened up again. A sigh left Deidara's throat. He was waisting his rare freetime just to stare at a mudcovered kunoichi, but on the other hand, the child inside him wanted to know what happened.

What was told about her again? She was taught by the 5th Hokage. She was the Kyuubi's friend, and still searching for that Uchiha kid.

Uchiha...that name brought a sour flavour up to his mouth. He really wasn't best friends with the Uchiha he knew, and to be true, he could not care less about a person.

His eyes wandered around, trying to find something that would be interesting enough to push away the thoughts about the whole Uchiha thing.

Everyone knew that Uchiha Sasuke left Konoha six or seven years ago. But nobody talked about it.

And that girl? It was known that she always stayed with the Kyuubi-boy, some said that she was protected by him, now that he only had one true friend left.

'Yep, protected', Deidara thought, grinning sarcastically, 'nice kind of protection if you let her fall into a river. She probably got her head smacked there too.'

His eyes widened as he thought about the river and the girl. He stood up and walked back to the water.

_Looks like you got a grip, young man._

Ignoring Inner Deidara, he looked at the river. If she was taken by the river in Konoha, then they were in Rain. The flow of the river came from the east.

Deidara's thoughts were circling again.

'I'm watching a fast asleep kunoichi. Exciting like a dead fish. I should spend my freetime like this everytime.'

He felt a sudden urge to stand up and get back to this place in the nowhere near Waterfall, a place he called a home. Getting back to his mud-pies and doing somthing else instead of looking at unconscious girls like a random pervert.

_Pervert, pervert, pervert._

The echo in his mind set an annoyed look on his face and darkened his mood. His 'Inner Deidara' always awakened when he had some spare time and usually he annoyed him. Or was he annoyed by himself? Sometimes he even thought he was insane, with imaginary friends and his Inner Deidara always talking to him.

He smashed his fist against the rock he was sitting on, only to whimper in pain.

_Fool._

"I know, un! Can't just shut up?" Deidara barked, fighting the pain in his hand. It felt like broken bones, even if it wasn't.

Hearing a cough, he suddenly forgot about the pain that happily marched up in his arm and looked at the muddy kunoichi.

She was waking up, holding her throat, and then touching her head. "Ouch..." Her hand investigated the wound on her head, then sliding down and falling on the ground again.

"Now..what?" Deidara wasn't sure if he was even noticed. "Dead, un?"

_You could just ask, you know._

Poking the girl slightly with his foot, he tried to make her wake up again.

She opened her eyes, giving him a curious look. "Who are you?"

He felt like he was told a joke or something like that, he couldn't believe that the open view on his robe, and the hat that was lying down beneath him could allow such a stupid question.

_Tell her your name is Tsunade. I bet she'll believe it. _His inner self just suggested.

"Un, excuse me?" Somehow paralyzed by such a question, he checked his clothes. Muddy, dirty and wet they were, but the couldn't be mistaken.

"Who...are you?" She lifted her aching head a little, looking helpless. "Or better question...who..am I?"

His jaw dropped open. 'Amnesia?' He scratched the back of his head a little before looking at her again.

_You ARE a charity lady, you just won't let it show._

"Un...you don't know where you are from, do you? Do you remember anything?" He couldn't handle such an unexpected situation, his voice trembled a little.

_You thought about killing her if she doesn't cooperate, didn't you? Now you can handle this one along, pull yourself out of this scrape._

"No, I just...have a headache, my head hurts so much.." She moved into a sitting position, even if her limbs were sore from whatever reason.

She took the pink braid in one hand and looked at it a little before throwing it back. "Do you know who I am? Tell me!" She looked at him desperatly.

'Hello there, S-Rank criminal', it flushed through his mind, 'feared all over the world, but cuddling with girls somewhere in the woods. You can hope that nobody get to know that.'

"Un...you're from..." He began to tug at his clothes a bit. Was it clever to tell her? "You are wearing a headprotector from Konoha..".

"Konoha?" She asked, a voice as thin as silk, "What's that?"

Deidara realized that she indeed had an amnesia, she didn't even know about her own village, and he could swear that most likely she didn't know about anything else either.

"It's...a hidden village..." he sighed. "I'll tell you later, I would suggest you go and wash your face."

_Trying to make up an excuse?_

"Well, alright...thank you Miss." She smiled and was getting up slowly, ignoring Deidara who was nearly knocked off his safte place on the Rock.

'Miss?'

_Serves you right._

"Un...I'm no girl..." He told her with an expression that was worth a hundret pounds of gold. The kunoichi looked at him, studying his face and smiling.

"Well then, you are a really girly man." Her smile was bright as she turned towards the river to wash the mud out of her face.

"You could at least say something like 'handsome' or good looking...un." He muttered and looked around. What the hell WAS he doing here, after all? Playing nanny for a girl that lost her memory?

_I bet the Hokage already sent out people that search for her. If they catch you with her, you can scare her off with a neat bloodbath. Nice idea._

Knowing that knocking Inner Deidara in the face would mean knocking himself out, he just searched for a tree that was high enough to take a look around.

'As I thought, that's really Rain. They can't even afford useful, high trees. Geez.'

Turning around, he saw the girl approaching him again, this time, her skin was clean, and she managed to rub some dried mud from her clothes.

"So what's this 'Hidden Village' you told me before?" She looked at him with curiosity.

He tipped his Finger on her headprotector. "A hidden village focuses on the 'production' of ninja, un."

She nodded and pulled the dirty sash out of her braided hair. "So that's the sign for Leaf? It doesn't look like a leaf, it looks like one of those noodles."

_Finally someone who says it._

"Un..." He started, but waited, watching the girl who looked at the sign of Leaf before slipping the protector into her crimson, still muddy, jacket.

Watching her, Deidara snickered. She quite took the style of her mentor, without knowing it. Even her appearance changed to match the Hokage's.

_And you are not ashamed to look at her breasts? You're a pervert._

"..I should take you to the next, town, shouldn't I?" He continued, watching her as she looked at her clothes. Curious, he watched as she inspected the cream colored, long medic skirt she wore.

"Am I a doctor?" She asked "It's strange...when I touched the wound on my head while washing, I wished that it would disappear, and suddenly there was this...eerie feeling that wandered to my hands."

Slapping his hand over his only free eye, he sighed.

"Kind of...un.." He didn't know how to explain this.

_You aren't aware of the fact that you can't get angry at girls, are you? You like their company. You always get as meek as a lamb when there are some around._

He knew that his inner self was right at this point, so he crossed his arms, while holding his not-too-dry hat in one hand, looking hat the sunshine that illuminated the leaves of the trees.

'Quite beautiful' was the only thought that crossed his mind, leaving him clueless about what to say.

"Can you...imagine what a medical ninja is, un?" He shook his head, looking at the girl again.

"Counting one and one together, it's something like a doctor, isn't it?" She ansewered cheerfully.

He nooded. "Un..they can heal using their chakra...I'm no good with explaining medic ways, un. I bet you were medic, so you healed your injury without knowing it. Instinct, un."

She nodded and stayed silent.

"You still don't know your name, do you?" Looking around, he reached out to catch a blooming branch of the tree next to him.

"I thought they only bloom in spring." The kunoichi suddenly said, without even thinking about it.

"Eh?" The blonde looked at the petals raining from the tree. "Sure..."

The girl tugged her hair. It had the same peachy color.

Petals rained from the tree, blooming late in the middle of the summer.

"The cherry tree usually blooms in spring." She said again. "This one won't carry fruits this year."

"Un...look, I got a name for you. As long as you don't know who you are, you shall call yourself Sakura. It's nice, isn't it, un?"

He held a blossom next to her hair, compairing the colors within his artistic mind.

"Sakura..." she said, thinking of herself being called that. "It sounds...so right."

And the petals still rained down from the tree.


	2. Roaring river

_Thanks for the encouraging reviews, I'm doing my best to keep the story going. _

_Dei doesn't use his Origami bird because...well, it's raining, rain and paper don't go well together, as do clay and rain. _

_I'll show you how some of Sakura's friends and how Tsunade reacts while she's gone, I thought it might be nice to show you her relationship with the other shinobi she knew._

_And you know...I don't own Naruto. Enjoy. _

-----

Tsunade was walking circles in the ground, and she almost believed you could see the track on the floor.

She almost freaked out when she heard that her very own apprentice got knocked into a river, and she got even more angry when she heard that this river lead into Rain almost directly.

'The rain in Rain falls mainly...' she hummed silent. She didn't even know when she made that up, and why she couldn't forget about it.

Rain was dangerous. She almost hoped that Sakura had lost her equipment and headprotector in the river, if she didn't drown.

'Hell, she didn't drown!' the Hokage slammed her fist on her desk, making half of the building shake. She couldn't handle the thought of the bright, happy girl embracing death in such a shabby way. After all, she was HER apprentice, she taught her better than that.

Maybe she was brought back on the bank of the river by the currents - and maybe some people found her? Maybe she wasn't even injured.

" 'Maybes' make me dizzy..." she sighed, looking around the roome, cursing everything that forbids her to search for Sakura herself. "You are alive and breathing, somewhere, aren't you? Then we will find you, everyone wants to..."

Tsunde caught a glimpse of her image mirrored in a window.

For some years now, everyone wondered how her whole personality and appearance had rubbed off onto Sakura, who grew more and more like the blonde woman on the top.

It was almost like having some kind of daughter, after all these years.

Smiling at her mirror image, she knew, losing this daughter would crush her soul a little bit more.

---

Tenten stood next to the raging water, watching how the angry river made it's way through the country, like some enraged dragon.

Smiling sadly, she sighed and watched her team mates, standing on the other side of the river.

Sakura got swallowed by this roaring line of water only yesterday, but wasting no time to recover her student - hopefully alive - Tsunade had sent out some of the shinobi who knew Sakura, but placing Naruto safely at home, 'Even if he goes insane', as she stated, knowing that he had a guilty conscience, and knowing that he wasn't guilty.

Tenten sighed again. Things like that happen, no one can possibly say if it's just a little stone that crumbles from the steeply hills next to that wild watersnake, or if it's an avalanche.

Accidents do happen.

Moving her eyes towards the Hyuuga clan's genius who searched the surroundings with his Byakugan, she already knew the answer if it takes that long.

Taking a deep breath, she screamed over the river, trying to fight the noise of the water with her own, not so loud voice: "Can I guess?"

Being disturbed greatly by this, Neji looked over the river, screaming back: "You want to play chess? Are you nuts?"

Tenten rolled her eyes before crossing the river over the giant rocks that lay in there.

"I asked if I should guess you results." She crossed her arms, looking at Lee, who stared off into the distance, not even noticing the Chuunin and the Jounin next to him talking.

'Defiantly a hard time for him.' Tenten's face softened, being happy that the got over the girlish crush she had on Neji when she was only a hormone-driven twelve year old. At the same time, she knew that Lee had never forgotten about what Sakura meant to him, even if it was odd and one-sided.

"You know the results." Neji stated calmly to the brown-eyes girl.

Tenten became quite some kind of Nanny for all the people she knew lately. She was always concerned, always being busy with hearing the little burdens that lasted on their souls.

And seeing everyone being touched and sad because of the accident that happened here, a day ago, troubled her and touched her deeply.

If someone said she was still an unwritten sheet seven years ago, she now knew what she could do best, and truly, she was brilliant with it.

"We're already close to Rain." Neji stated, trying to hide his worry. "If she got sucked in there deeply, she's either dead or lying somewhere in the mud next to that bastard river."

Tenten placed her eyes on the horizon where she knew Rain was enjoying the last bits of the sun.

"Maybe. Hopefully not." She could almost hear how the steady Hyuuga shook his head.

---

They had been walking through the forest for hours now, the sky already switched colors from opaque blue to a bloody red, the light colored Sakura's hair strangely orange.

She resembled an orange. Or a peach.

At least that was what the slightly worn out and bored Deidara thought, beside from his quarrels with his annoying, but truthful inner self, he hadn't had any conversation.

The kunoichi just stared at the sky changing colors, smiling and turning sad, and smiling again.

He was never good with girl, usually they were scared of him after they saw his hands, so he never passed the point of handshaking.

They were disgusted, scared, and some even called him a monster.

Yet he couldn't even be angry with women in general, he even has problems to talk to them usually, talking 'random nonsene that is even more stupid than his hands' as Inner Deidara would say.

Maybe being rejected by people in general made him speak like he was always thinking about his sentences.

_You are brooding about your soft spot for girls again. _His inner self interrupted _Can't you just admit you're a perv?_

'I'm no pervert, and now shut up, please.'

_That would be the same thing like forbidding yourself to think. _The mental image of himself chuckled. _Smart, young man, smart._

'You're a pest, you know.'

_I only plague you as long as you don't learn to be truthful with yourself._

Clenching his teeth, the blonde Akatsuki looked over to Sakura again, whose looks followed some sparrows that hopped on the ground next to them. Her expression changed drastically to a unbelievable sad one, and Deidara wondered what he should do if she decided to break down crying.

He felt the same eerie horror creeping up inside him when he thought about situations that get out of control.

Like the day before, when Kisame was drunk to the point of no return and started dancing on the dinnertable. One would consider that a party, but not if you know that one wrong word could mean that the rest of the evening would be spent dodging the sharkman's attempts to break your jaw.

So Deidara forced some words out of his throat, just to avoid his personal horror.

"...Alright?" He could almost see Inner Deidara bonking his noggin'.

Sakura looked at him with lime-green eyes, full of curiousity, but then she was amused. "These words no sentence." She said, giggling.

_I'm stuck in the body of a moron. _

"Un, are you alright now or do I have to shake you to get your psyche balanced?" Annoyed Deidara stated, looking not too pleased with the whole Situation. It was just too embarrassing. Still he had the image of dancing Kisame in mind.

Sakura sighed and turned sad again. "I feel hollow."

_Now you can believe many things about this statement._

"As long as you're not trying to eat me, I'm fine with that, un."

The kunoichi blinked, and then started laughing like crazy. "I'm not talking about me being hungry!" She giggled, her body bent with laughter.

_That means..._

'Just be quiet, can you? You give me headache."

_Same goes for me. Stay out of your own head!_

"It's something I feel. I feel hollow, as if something is missing." She wiped some tears away. "You are funny, and yet I don't know your name."

Deidara shrugged. "You want to know, un?"

"Of course I want to, or would you like to be called some stupid nickname by me?" She answered with a false seriousness.

"Un...it's Deidara." Ignoring how she was grinning, he looked at some birds that searched the mud for worms.

"You know, that sounds..." She stopped and thought a moment. "...like a girl's name, you know.."

'Great.'

_Great._

"Great, un." He pulled a caterpillar from his clothes, placing it on a nearby twig.

"It's not meant to be offending!" Sakura moved her hands as if she wanted to defend herself. "I just think that is...funny somehow." She smiled and turned on her heel. "Should we go on?"

Her sudden mood changes confused the blonde, not to mention he was puzzled by the fact that she already stayed more than two seconds with him.

"If we reach a town..." he started, carefully thinking about what to say. "..you shouldn't tell anyone you're from Konoha, or show your headprotector, un."

She shrugged. "I wouldn't show it anyone anyway, it's so dirty and stained, I would be embarressed to say it's mine. Still I wonder...I don't remember a think about this land, yet I don't feel quite safe here."

The sky got darker as the two of them walked on, not knowing where to go (one didn't remember, the other just lost). Not only one time Deidara cursed his soft spot for girls, as he watched Sakura one moment bursting with happiness, the other depressed with no ground under her.

Somehow the girl was interesting, if it was because of her amnesia or the fact that she was friend of the Kyuubi, he didn't know, but he knew after all that it was nice to be with someone who didn't consider him a monster, disgusting or anything else. Just for a conversation that was above the 'How many people did you kill today' level.

Violence was pushed back to a dark spot in his mind when he wasn't fighting, believing it wasn't neccessary at all. Avoiding violence was avoiding trouble.

_You think too much._

'Sometimes better than talking.'

_Especially when you talk to girls. You always talk nonsense._

'That's none of your business.'

_When will you get that I am you?_

"Just shut the hell up, you annoying pest!" He suddenly yelled, making Sakura twitch in fear, then smiling nervously.

"What was that about...I didn't say anything..." She said, scared as it seemed.

Realizing that he actually reacted noisy to his inner self, and scaring the pink haired kunoichi with his reaction, he gave Inner Deidara some nasty names silently, before looking at the girl that reached his nose with her eyes.

"Nothing...it wasn't you, actually, un.." He looked around nervously. "It's just...I'll tell you later."

Nodding, but still a bit scared, Sakura went on with him.

When they finally reached some little town, Deidara already carried the girl piggyback, being aware of the stupid sight it might be.

Not too long after his sudden outburst, she wasn't even able to keep her eyes open, and the keep her from collapsing on the muddy ground in the woods, he just took her on his back, not believing how light the girl was.

The town was small, but still biggen that some he had seen when he was still a shinobi of the Earth Country. There you could be sure, if you build up three houses next to each other, you can say it's a town.

Shaking the sleeping kunoichi a bit to wake her up, he looked around. He was sure he wouldn't be welcome there, but at least he could force them to keep Sakura and to shut their mouthes about who brought her there.

Carrying a girl, a hat and a strange inner ego around, he followed the street he made out.

"...said you can set me to the ground again." He suddenly hear Sakura, who was awake on his back, and trying to get off. "Are you dreaming?"

"Un...kinda." With a sudden movement, he let her down on her high heeled sandals.

When he first saw these unique shoes, it was clear to him that she was an apprentice of the Hokage. Not many kunoichi wore high heeled sandals.

Actually only two.

He just told himself that a kick with these shoes would hurt much, and was satisfied with this answer.

"You want to leave me in some kind of inn or hotel, do you?" Sakura looked around. It was dark already, and she was rather nervous suddenly. "How do you think should I pay for something expensive like that?"

"You don't need to pay anything, un." He looked around. "I know a pretty nice way to make you stay here for free as long as you want."

Not knowing what he meant, Sakura nodded.


	3. Thoughts

The inn-keeper looked definatly frightened.

The clouded robes just scared everyone to death, and the civilians in this inn were no exception.

Deidara tried looking scary and threating, which he somehow mastered perfectly.

"Un, listen." he addressed the elderly man "I have no plans to do any harm to the village, but maybe to you if you don't help me out."

The man just nodded looking nervously from the dirty woman to the blonde young man next to her. "What do you wish for?" He asked, shivering.

Deidara grinned in a wicked fashion. "I heard Rain is famous for it's kidneys?" He cackled, placing an arm around the puzzled Sakura, giving a good show. "If you let my girl there stay here as long as she wants, and if you give her food and stuff, then I won't be forced to rip your abdomen open and make you eat your own kidneys, un."

The inn-keeper stared at him with horror. "But Sir, how am I supposed to make any profit with a guest that stays for free, eats for free and drinks for free?"

Deidara shrugged. "Make the sake more expensive, un?" He began playing with clueless Sakura's braid. "So, where does she stay? Un, I heard human kidneys don't taste that good..."

The man gulped, then pointed upstairs. "We only have five rooms, take the last one on the upper floor.."

Smiling in a scary way, Deidara led Sakura upstairs to her room, leaving the inn-keeper and his guests back in a state of terror.

"You aren't that scary, actually." Sakura placed herself on the futon on the ground. "But it was a good show."

"Un...I thought it would be creepy if I really had to rip him apart..." He turned his disgusted face to the ricepaper door. "It's icky, un...I usually hate violence, unfortunatly, it's part of my life."

"Tell me" Sakura lifted herself up again, opening the window fully, and placing her upper body on the window sill, looking down on some roofs. "Why were you mad at me then?"

Looking clueless, Deidara scratched his head. "I were?"

"You were, in the forest, when you started screaming." She obviously didn't notice that he was uncomfortable with not seeing her face.

"I wasn't angry with you" he said in the most convincing tone he could create in his throat, while flinging imaginary stones at his Inner Self. Stones? Rocks. Mountains. "I hear a voice sometimes, it's annoying and it hasn't manners, and it likes calling me an idiot, un!"  
She turned around with a sudden movement, and at first sight, he thought she would try beating him to trash with her new discovered strength, leaving only pieces of him shattered around the room.

But she smiled and snickered.

"Then it's okay." She walked across the room inspecting a map on the wall.

"What?" Deidara blinked.

"It's okay." She said again. "It's normal, I've got something like that also. It always bothers me when I don't behave like myself. It has an image in my mind, it's black and white and aggressive."

"Un, you mean I'm not insane or like that?"

"You're not."

_Surprise. You won an award for being the Not-Insane of the year. Here comes the cake!_

Sakura pointed towards the map. "I noticed you were somehow lost in the woods..."

A mental punch in the abdomen.

"...I think you may want to take it, I bet they won't question you. The area where we are is circled red..."

Shuffeling towards the map slowly, he inspected it. "Nice, I knew that place looked familiar." He tipped the map. "I heard about a brothel in this area, but I wasn't aware that it's in this shabby little town. I bet the think I want to sell you to the owner, un."

The now scared Sakura stepped away from him. "You won't, will you?"

"Un, you want to keep your dignity, I bet, and I wouldn't even sell you if I was short on money." He said without turning his head, and without any interest in his voice, or emotions, as if it wasn't a serious matter.

Sighing in relief, she looked out of the window again. "What are you going to do now?"

"I shall leave you through the window. Those people shouldn't know that I'm gone, otherwise they might hurt you, un, because you don't seem to be a kunoichi."

"I see, your girlfriend waits for you." She smiled in a satisfied way.

Another punch in the abdomen. "I would be happy if I had one waiting for me, un." He muttered, rolling up the map and letting it disappear to the insides of his sleeve.

"Why's that? I can't imagine you being single." Sakura asked, eyes wide in a puzzled state.

'I saw that coming."

_Not only you. Prepare, she'll be screaming like hell._

Pulling up his sleeves, his expression went sad, almost hurt in some way, which Sakura didn't understand at this point. "I have the disgusting hands, un." Deidara stated, trying not to look into her eyes.

The kunoichi inspected the hands that were smiling at her. Smiling back, she started giggling, irritating Deidara AND his Inner Self.

"That's funny!" She said, catching her breath. "I've never seen something that interesting! Why is it the reason that girls don't like you?"

Pulling down his oversized sleeves again, he felt words failing.

'Something goes horribly wrong here.?

_True._

"Aren't you a bit in terror, un?" He finally said, looking still like he saw a three headed monky. "Any girl I met so far was scared, they called me a monster, un!"

"Then those were stupid." She said, smiling. "So, you wanted to leave, you said?"

"Ehh...yep." he tried to cool down again, playing with a strand of the long hair he always stuffed inside his robe. "Un, you may give me your headprotector, Sakura.."

"Why's that?" She watched him, pulling the sash out of her small jacket, and handing it over.

"You'll see, I might come to check up on you tomorrow or in some days, I don't know if I can get...free time.." He examined her state. "Un, if I might suggest...take a bath and ask the wife of the landlord to wash your clothes.."

As she nodded, he already made his way out of the window.

---

Tsunade had already heard the little crack. But she didn't know if it was her heart or a part of her soul that just fell apart.

She tried hard to keep from shaking when the previous members of Team Gai stood in front of her, telling her that their search was without result. And when the girl with the buns pulled a wet armwarmer out of her bag, saying that they found it far away from the border to Rain, almost at the squall where the river was still a little stream.

The Hokage knew that only animals, maybe a raven or a seagull, could have taken it so far away from the actual flow.

Now Tsunade sat alone in her giant room, feeling helpless while looking at the dark green arm warmer. She felt the tears that started flowing down her cheeks, and she felt them dropping on her chest.

Once, when Sakura was still new at the business of becoming a great medical ninja, she took the girl with the rare, pink hair out to a meadow, a silent one that was flat enough that you could see far from the tree they rested under.

_You know _she said in a gentle, motherly tone then _Clouds, the sun and the moon, they all need a place to rest. They need the sky that holds them, the clouds need comforting arms when the are crying, shattering their tears over the world, the sun needs a shoulder to put her head when the clouds make her look dark and unimportant, and the moon needs somebody to talk to when he thinks that nobody sees him in the night, when he feels alone and forgotten._

Resting her arms around Sakuras shoulders, she got on talking.

_You are the sky, Sakura, a sky everybody needs to feel warmth. A gentle being that cures little wounds and big ones, that gives comfort when needed, kisses when love is desired and rest when everybody seems to be busy. You'll learn it, and everyone you gave this love that only women hold will remember you._

Tsunade wiped her tears away. Suddenly she knew what she had missed when her misery was too large to go on with her life, not having children, nobody that cares for her when she gets old and helpless.

Hugging the armwarmer, she got up from her seat.

She wanted her girl back, even if she would find her dead, torn apart by wolves, or ripped into shreds by the enemies of Konoha.

She just wanted her girl back.

---

_This is so usual. _

Deidara sat on a thick branch, ignoring the complaining Inner Deidara who started kicking his brain.

He got lost, and it rained again. But cold rain this time.

_Now girl, what are you going to do?_

"Un...what's up with that girl-thing lately?"

_You behave like one. You look like one. It's wouldn't surprise me if you are one._

"I can't believe you are a product of my mind, un..."

_You don't have to.. . _

"You know the cloaks are made this way? To avoid getting a grip of one's gender, un?"

_To stop people like you swooning over random kunoichis._

"You're not funny, un."

_Now shall I guide you out of this mess or do you want to sleep on a random tree?_

"You won. Un, but it was your idea to take her along."

_Actually not. It was yours, I only told you, because thoughts like there are surpressed in your mind._

---

To Sakura's surprise, the landlady wasn't aware of the fact that Deidara threatened her husband. She was a chubby, happy lady around fifty, and she liked the thought about having a young woman staying in her inn.

"That's no problem, really, Miss." she said as Sakura asked her if she could was her clothes when she passed the room the kunoichi stayed. "I'll give you one of my daughter's old Yukata she left when she had her wedding. I will wash you things this night, so you can have them tomorrow, alright?"

Sakura felt happy when the elder woman smiled at her, treating her so nicely and making her feel comfortable.

The she was then, wearing a plain, coral-colored Yukata that was in good condition, sitting next to the window again and watching some dark clouds moving across the midnight blue sky, covering the moon.

She hummed a song that came in mind, and watched as the clouds started crying for no particular reason.

Why was there nobody to comfort them? The sky seemed so dark and dull this night, unlike the bright red one that she remembered from this evening.

And why were the clouds crying in front of the icy looking moon?

She shook her head. The strange thoughts about crying clouds and moons that were forgotten confused her and made her dizzy. She didn't know why she though of such simple things you usually tell children, but they made feel all warm, as if there was something important, something precious that she didn't remember.

It felt almost motherly.

She thought the same thing before falling asleep, being haunted by strange dreams.

---------------

_**Well, only three pages this time - I don't want too much to happen, I think I don't even have a feeling how people with amnesia feel.**_

_**I love to write Tsunade being motherly - she would be so great being a mother-figure to Sakura, one that can be gentle and caring but at the same time strict.**_

_**Well...give me some time to think about the next events.**_

_** waves**_


	4. Cry Me A River

It wasn't until four days later that Deidara's ways led him back to the town where he left the kunoichi, and actually he needed two days just to find the ways he had to take, until he decided to mount a giant Origami owl.

He actually felt a little guilty, he promised to be back soon, and actually, four days wasn't that short.

Still he wanted some company that won't be picking on him. He had enough of the common "Deidara-is-pregnant"-jokes whenever he wasn't controled by his anger alone.

He shook his head, getting down into the nearby forest, taking his hat from the head of the paper owl. He had not found a way to make it stay on his head without ruining his ponytail, and a look in the mirror told him that his looks were far too feminine if he wouldn't keep it.

The town was bright and unusual happy at day, so happy that it disgusted the blonde almost, knowing that sometimes people came here to sell their daughters to the brothel that was on the other end of the town.

He had to admit that it wasn't quite the right place to park the kunoichi at, but he almost believed that his litte show at the inn was enough to scare the inn-keeper off.

Being something like a nanny and a feared criminal at the same time felt wierd, even if he knew he just wanted to know all the time where he could go and talk to somebody who doesn't smell like old fish, who doesn't eat people, who doesn't look like he reached the age of fourty in half of the time, and also where he knew he would be safe from somebody who was creepier than his only aunt he remembered.

And she was really scary.

The way up on the roofs was far more uncomfortable than down, he had to admit, even if it wasn't hard or anything.

As he, under the protest of his Inner Self, entered the room through the window, he found Sakura asleep and curled up on the shabby looking, small couch that was stuffed into one edge of the room and covered with a knitted blanked.

_Go ahead, it seems like you weren't loud enough already._

She suddenly shot up, sitting straight on the old, ugly thing. Somehow she was confused, looking around the room as if she didn't know where she was in this moment.

It wasn't too hard to see that the kunoichi was scared, even if not scared to death, still her eyes had a haunted look.

"Un...anybody there?" Still, Deidara didn't see. Sakura turned towards him, with a forced smile, trying to look normal.

"It's alright. Were you lost again?" She croaked, but grabbing her neck in embarressment then. "Sorry, I had a cold the last two days." She whispered, a bit frustrated. "Be happy, if you had been around, you would have fever aswell."

"I'm quite immune, bacterias don't like me, un." He opened the collar of the cloudy robe, trying to catch some breathe.

Sakura wore her own clothes again, but this time clean and without the strange, crimson jacket, revealing the cream colored dress with large, white straps, which he first thought to be a medic skirt because of the two wide slids on each side.

Moving one naked foot out of the blankets and placing it on the ground, Deidara began to move his hands as if defending himself from those people that knock on your door and try to sell you strange things which are magic in their belief.

"You don't have to sit up because I'm here, un." Looking around in search for a chair, he gave up and placed himself on the ground. "Look, I brought you a present."

He pulled his right arm up the sleeve and out again, holding her headprotector in it, the metal part riveted on a new, cream colored sash that fitted her dress.

"I couldn't get any of the usual colors they use for these things, and I wasn't able to wash the dirt out of your old, cherry colored one, so I just...bough fabric and had a friend putting it on again, even if I was asked out..."

He suddenly stopped, looking at her face while she smiled happily. "Un...these are quite...large shadows under your eyes..weren't you supposed to sleep?"

The smile on her face suddenly disappeared, and Deidara wanted to hit his head against the wall.

"This is the second time I slept in the past four days." She said, moving a hand through her open hair. "It's not healthy, but I just couldn't."

She overnoised his attempt to answer with a loud cough.

"Un...you have a reason, haven't you?" He moved his head a litte to the right, eyeing her up and down with his uncovered eye.

"I think I might tell you when I feel like it." She smiled her sad smile again. "Everything is just so hollow, I feel like the world decided to open an abyss right under my feet, sucking me in and never letting me out again, but then I have these strange thought about skies and clouds and the moon and sun, and then I like humming old children's songs I never heard before."

She pulled her knees to her body. "I feel lost on my way to nowhere."

Deidara focused on her eyes, only to find a great, wide field of nothing in the lime green sky in front of him.

Some minuted passed before the pink haired girl woke up from her silent moments. She studied the face of the young man in front of her, sighing and shaking her head, much to his confusion.

"I bother you." She croaked with her sore throat. "I think you don't want to know about my troubles."

He shook his head, making his hair fly a bit. "Un, not really, I just..." he looked at her. "...I don't kow how you feel exactly. My situation is different."

Sakura pulled one hand up to her chest. "But we don't really know each other, I don't even know myself."

Listening to the girl that had voice like a nightingale, he took a look outside.

She sun was shining, there was no rain, and the sky was clear - a rare sight in Rain, the country where the clouds where crying day and night.

"Un, shall I take you out?" He asked, nodding towards the window. "Maybe that will make you feel better."

"Out?" She asked, a puzzeled look on her face.

He chuckled. "Out, un. There ware meadows and trees, deer and birds, you know."

"I know, but..." She wasn't able to finish her sentence.

"Lock the door from inside, un, and then I'll take you out through the window." He said grinning.

He just wanted to distract her from feeling lost and alone, feeling that such an emotion would hurt her more than help her, and definatly, he liked to see pretty girls with smiles more than depressed hags.

"Alright." Sakura said, placing the key inside the rolled up futon. "But remember I can't jump without getting hurt."

The blonde just snickered, and approached her, making the ill Sakura wonder what he was about to do, when she was suddenly sweeped off her feet, having one of his hands under her waist und one under her knees. "Un, but don't slap be when we're outside, yes?" He said while bouncing down the roof behind the inn, having Sakura clawing her hands on his robe.

"Un, I left my hat at your room." He said, while running at a semi-fast speed through the forest, trying not to get too far from the town, and looking for a nice place.

_Can I ask something?_

'Go ahead, but don't get too annoying again.'

_Why are you doing that?_

'Doing what?'

_Being so nice with her. You barely know her._

'Because she isn't stupid and..I think I have some responsibility here.'

_I see..you did well back then._

'When? Hey, don't leave now..?'

Still searching for his Inner Self in his mind, he suddenly stopped at a small clearing between the high trees.

"Un, how's that?" He asked Sakura, who was still busy with clawing her hands into his robe. "We shouldn't get too far, or I won't find the way back." He laughed nervously, letting the kunoichi down on a treestump to sit down.

"It's nice." She said combing her hair, which was messy now, with her fingers. "I didn't know that there are violets blooming so close to towns, usually they don't like civilization."

Lowering her head to inspect the little flowers, Deidara, who watched her, couldn't help but wonder why she knew something like that.

She smiled slightly, brushing her loose hair back behind her ear. "I don't know why I know this. It's like when this doctor came to check up on me. The landlady called him. He had some sketches of the human body with him, and he confused the liver with the spleen, can you imagine that? And then I told him it was wrong and he was so pissed, he rushed out immediatly."

Deidara was just relieved that this doctor, which he suspected to be a local lesser medical ninja, didn't stay long enough to notice her amnesia.

"By the way" he said "un, I still have your headprotector."

She eyed the metal that was shining in the sun. "Is it really needed? It looks uncomfortable."

"Unn..you don't have to wear it, it would be...a bit stupid. You'll understand it soon enough, you may want to wear it one day." He said, focusing on a sparrow that rested on a tree, only to avoid looking the those sad eyes.

Sakura was aware of that, and started to fight against it by looking at the sparrow. "I like birds." She croaked like a raven. "They are just...lovely."

Clapping his hands with sudden excitement, he sat down in the grass, looking at her like a happy child. "Un, you really do like them?" He asked with a bright smile on his face.

"Sure I do...I just told you." She bent her upper body down to look at him. "I especially like the robin."

He took her hand, happily shaking them. "One day I'll show you some really nice birds. " He smiled at her like little children smiled when it was christmas. "And you'll like them more than anything else, un!"

"You are strange." She giggled. "A grown man, acting like a child because of some birds. That's really special."

Deidara watched the sparrow that was eyeing down now, being disturbed by those two human beings that were so loud.

"Un, so what makes the grown woman happy? Is it flowers?" He said, somehow mocking, but also seeing that this question knocked all the happiness she had for some seconds off her face.

"I don't know, but I don't like to get picked at." She moved her hand to her forehead. "I don't know why, but I feel angry when I imagine people picking at me. I guess I have quite a temper, I don't know yet." The hand went down again.

He looked at her, especially the place her hand touched before. Maybe that was something she remembered from before, the before before she fell into the river.

"Un.." he looked at the forehead, before giving it a try. "You know, you have quite a wide forehe-"

Before realizing what happened, he felt her fist hitting his face with immense power, luckily not enough to break his jawbones.

Sakura looked at him, being embarressed. While she felt that she was blushing, she got up from her wooden seat and knelt down beside the twitching and blinking blonde.

It was obvious that he didn't expect being punched that hard. Hell, he expected being slapped, maybe punched the way girls punch you, but not a blow with a little amount of this inhuman strength that the Hokage was famous for.

"Is everything alright?" Sakura waved her hand in front of his face. "I'm sorry, I couldn't control my movement."

Blinking and then realizing that he was still lying on the ground, and that he was troubleing a already sick girl.

"Un...right." he shook his head, feeling his left cheek. Hot. "...this will be...agony..." He sighed.

"I'm sorry." Sakura lowered her eyes, trying to hide her embarressment.

"It's alright...I'm not made of sugar..." He looked at her, not believing that a girl that was light as feather and that was that slender and hat such a gentle built could knock him off his feet so easily. "Un...I don't mean this about your head, but you shouldn't wear a braid, that makes it look large."

"I'm getting cold..we should go back." She said while still nodding.

She fell asleep on the way back, making Deidara notice that she was much lighter when she was awake, and having her hands clawed onto his robe didn't make it easier.

He was trying to keep up his speed, when he suddenly had to stop. He heard the still asleep kunoichi sobbing, an realized that his personal horror had come to life all of the sudden.

Still it wasn't as bad as he imagined it would be. She was asleep, not making any noise beside the soft sobbing.

And still, it made him wonder why there were these tears flowing down her cheeks, since he never felt the urge to cry anymore since he left the Hidden Village of Rock back then.

Shaking his head and going on, he felt a little guilty. Maybe she wasn't sleeping because she had bad dreams. Maybe because the dreams made her cry.

He had to admit to himself that he didn't know enough about the female mind, and that he spent too much time to get rid of emotions.

It puzzled him until he reached the window that was still open, the golden light of the evening flooding the room.

_Now you will have fun opening the futon, without hands? Basically...you are unarmed. Hehehe._

'That one was bad.'

_Not as bad as your attempt to understand women._

'At least I try to.'

_It will be your end one day. Prepare for eternal suffering!_

His Inner Deidara was wrong in one point: he just kicked the rolled up futon open, catapulting the key through the whole room, against a wall and finally on the ground.

_I'll give you ten points out of ten for that one. Was this included in your education when you were still a Genin?_

Growling at his inner self, he placed the kunoichi on the futon, grabbing his hat and preparing to leave, when he felt a tug on his robe.

"I'm sorry, I'm so much trouble." Sakura whispered in a sleepy tone.

"Un, not really. You aren't heavy." He lied. She was heavy when she was asleep. And being stronger than usualy men didn't change it.

"No, I'm just...trouble." She said, lifting her upper body from the ground. "I know you want to know what's up with me."

"I want, but you don't so I mustn't know, un." He said, looking at the hat in his hand. "You have the right to keep it for yourself, right, un?"

"But..." The kunoichi blinked, the last sunbeams coloring her hair peach-colored again.

"You should be careful here." He said, looking out of the window. "You are not as safe as you think."

"You mean that you are dangerous too, don't you?" She said, pulling her knees close, hugging them.

"I am, truly, un..." He said, trying to place his hat on his head. "I could be a greater danger for you that those horny bastards that come into town usually, un...but for now..." he thought a moment. "Just stay far away from this brothel, un."

And from one second to another, he was gone.

_Do you know what was strange today? I didn't know that ricepaper doors have keyholes._

**------**

**I think I somehow waste my time with useless conversations.**

**ALL HAIL THE MIGHTY DEISAKU FC! **


	5. The Past

It was late at night when Sakura woke up again.

The room was almost dark, some moonlight gave enough light for her to look around.

She hear some strange sounds before she decided to open her eyes, something made her alarmbells ring, and she didn't know if it was something good od bad, only that there was something there.

After a minute of thinking, the kunoichi moved herself up, carfully looking around the room. Careful by instinct, even if she could not tell why she behaved like this.

She walked across the room without a noise, until she hit the shabby little couch.

There she sighed with relief.

She didn't know when the blonde man had come back, but Deidara was snoring on the uncomfortable looking couch, his robe rolled up under his head, hair loose and hat pulled half over the face, as if he would sleep in bright sunshine.

Actually it was bright moonlight, and reason enough to hide under the strawhat.

Sakura was still confused, she didn't even know that he entered the room, or that he made himself comfortable on the couch. And somehow she was amazed.

She smiled at the slightly drooling blonde and sat down on the footend of the couch, watching and slowly drifting back into light sleep again.

--

It was morning when Deidara noticed two things:

His feet were uncomfortable warm. Maybe a fever.

Something tickled on his skin. Maybe a spider.

However, he staring in an amused way when he found Sakura sleeping on the other end of the couch, with her arm wrapped around both of his naked feet and her pink hair doing the job for the strange spider-like feeling.

It was a rather bizarre situation for him, seeing somebody hugging his feet as if they were the nicest thing next to pillows.

After some minutes, he patted her head, trying to wake her up, to escape this embarrassing situation at once.

"Stop it...I'm tired." And with this she hugged his feet tighter, not caring about the upcoming numbness in them.

"Un...if you continue doing this, they will rot.." Deidara said, trying to peel her off his feet. "You know, I'm wearing sandals, and my feet are quite dirty."

Slowly, Sakura removed from his feet, unblocking the bloodflow in his veins.

Feeling life in the precious walking devices again, he quickly removed his feet as he noticed Sakura drifting off again.

"Un...you seem tired?"

_Smart. Question._

"I am...I...am..." She yawned, shaking her head. "Your cheek is...bad." She looked at his swollen cheek, guilt in her eyes. "Sorry."

Deidara moved a hand up to his swollen, hot cheek. Agony. "Un...it's not that bad. Shall put some ice on it when home again." He smiled to cover the pain that rushed up to his brain. He was almost able to tell that his jawbone was at least partially broken.

"Move over here." She said, pointing at a place next to her.

"You are going to punch me again, aren't you, un?" He moved over unwillingly, expecting to die in the next few minutes, either from a punch or from a tried healing. He cursed himself for not having the guts to defend himself against the girl.

She just placed her hand on the swollen cheek, and with doing nothing more, the pain was gone.

"Un, you actually did this better than my mommy could." He touched the place, feeling if there was anything left.

"I don't know, you told me about this medical stuff, but for me it's just a matter of concentration. You don't look so good with a miserable cheek." She said, repressing a giggle.

"I know." He reached out for his robe and drew out the red ribbon he used to tie his hair up in a ponytail.

"Shall I help you? It's hard without a mirror." Sakura had placed her arms on her knees, resting her head on her hands.

"Un, just close it when I'm done, I'm pretty good with this already." He kept his gaze towards the window. Something in the air made him nervous and gave him a rather bad feeling, even if nothing pointed towards this. Handing Sakura the ends of the ribbon, he suddenly felt like he should leave this place quickly, and that he should come back as late as he could. Maybe the feeling meant danger, or worse, he could get pulled into the townspeople's matter if there was something going on.

Sakura in the meanwhile tied a little bow in the end of the ribbon and seemed perfectly happy, much to Deidara's confusion.

"Un. I feel like I'm going to fall prey for some jokes again." He sighed as he felt the bow with his fingers.

"I think it's cute." Sakura snickered. "You shouldn't take it so serious, people who are joking about you have no personality at all, they are just mean and try to hide their plainness."

"Teachers said the same when I was six or seven, un." He put on his cloak again and took the hat in one hand. Looking around again, he feel the uncomfortable air again. And also he questioned himself why the kunoichi didn't feel anything, even with lost memory her body should feel things like that.

_. It makes me feel the urge to stab my eyes with a fork._

"It's just important to know." She said, turning on her heel and marching up and down in the little room.

"Alright, you're right, un." He grinned sheepishly "I gotta go now, I'll be back soon, I think, un." he hopped out of the window and was gone, leaving back a amused Sakura who met the old landlady when she opened the previously locked door.

"Ah, dear." The happy woman smiled at her, carrying a bunch of towels towards a cabinet. "Breakfast ist just ready, and we also have some other guests this morning, why don't you go and eat something downstairs?"

"Thank you madam, I will." Sakura bowed slightly before walking down to the dining room, which was only like four tables, pillows for sitting and a door to the kitchen, and not really worth to be called a dining room.

Sakura looked around, noticing some guests, mainly four men who were munching down their breakfast with disgusting noises, and a woman, probably around thirty, dressed in a slipping, brightly colored Yukata.

Highly disgusted by the men, Sakura didn't feel the urge to sit next to them, talk to them, look at them or even having their smell in her nose. Searching for the low table that was as far away from them as possible, she sat down on her feet.

Her throat was almost okay again, maybe the fresh air was the best treatment she could get, but still she wondered what the bad dreams meant she had everytime she fell asleep. They frightened her, and they made her wake up with a scream, or crying like a waterfall.

She dreamed about people she didn't know, and there were scenarios that were so real, pain she could feel, even in her dreams.

She tried to avoid sleep, trying to stay up all night. It wouldn't help, she would fall asleep sooner or later, and she would dream her bad dreams again.

And then she would be afraid again.

"Dear, do you hear me?" The landlady bowed towards her. "Stop dreaming, I have something to eat for you." She pointed on the table towards a bowl of pale, white rice (which actually disgusted Sakura a little), and some other things, even if the fresh crabs seemed a bit strange for a breakfast.

Putting down a cup of black coffee, she got up with a smile on her face. "You look like your sleep wasn't a good one, so I think that might help."

'Smart lady' Sakura thought sarcastically.

Nodding in a cheerful way, Sakura watched the landlady as she got into the kitchen, before she gave in to the almost screaming feeling of appetite that came from her stomach.

"So, I haven't seen you here before." She heard the smokey voice of the woman in the Yukata as she approached. "Do you take breakfast here often?"

Sakura was secretly thanking God that it was the woman, and not one of the vicious looking men. "Eh...I have...a room here.."

"Oh I see...then you are not a new prey of this horrible village?" Sitting down next to Sakura while holding her oversized Yukata, the woman also shook some of her black hair out of her collar. "You should be happy then, this town is not a good place for girls like you."

"I'm sorry but...who are you?" The pink haired kunoichi placed the empty bowl on the table again and began to torture the fried crabs.

"How rude I am. People here call me Karu, my real name is something I don't react to anymore. And yours is, girl?"

"Sakura." She choked the urge to say 'at least I think so'.

"How nice, it really fits. As I said, try to stay away from suspicious men in this town - only trust little boys and really old guys. Or otherwise you may find yourself tied to a bed when you wake up again."

Karu smiled as Sakura looked at her horrorfied. "You know, I work in the brothel. And before I see lovely girls ending up like me, I rather warn them."

"How does it come that such a small town is that...gross?" Sakura took a sip from her coffee before facing Karu again.

"Because it's small. It usually gets no attention, so they can run something 'gross' like a brothel here." She fluffed her hair a little. "Do you mind if I take those crabs?"

Shaking her head, Sakura felt all appetite leaving her. She looked down at the black coffee, seeing her lime green eyes.

"You know, I think there's more about you than you are talking about." Karu finished the crabs in unbelievable speed. "May we talk in your room? Don't be afraid, I really just want to make friends with you. You seem to be far too good to end up as badly payed piece of flesh."

"Yes but...just tell me, how old are you, you are looking so...young." Sakura got up, offering Karu a hand.

"Offical age is twentytwo, but.." Karu winked. "I'm thirty already."

"But why did you start working there? It's so dishonorable." Sakura looked as the black haired woman fixed the Yukata, that was painted with colorful fireworks, again.

"Honey, I was sold to this place fifteen years ago." Kura smiled.

---

Tsunade was sitting under the tree where she taught Sakura about the sky. Her eyes were gazing up to the clear blue curtain of it, seeing the clouds wander, the sun burning recklessly. She heard the voices of the birds that sang, the crickets chirping and the wind blowing, like there never was somebody called Sakura, or like she was still there, admiring the beauty of nature.

The Hokage was in a state of desperation. She had sent out entire squads of elites to search for her apprentice, she sent out the people that were Genin along with the pink haired girl, and now she had to believe that Sakura was dead? That was unfair.

"That's unfair." She heard from the other side of the tree.

"I know." Tsunade didn't turn around. She had taken the blonde boy here, hoping that he would talk to her a bit, or at least that he would like the landscape that was prefered by Sakura.

Naruto had grown depressed in a short period of time, he became sad and almost tired, losing his will to search for his friend.

She had sent him out with his friends after he almost went insane. She couldn't bear to see the boy suffering, it reminded her too much of what was going on inside of her.

"Do you think she's alive?"

Tsunade closed her eyes. She thought the job of the Hokage was hard, but being a motherly friend was even harder. "I hope so. She is strong, Naruto."

"You want to comfort me with taking me here, don't you?"

Tsunade took a deep breath. She wanted to know where his enthusiasm, and his energy went to. He was cheerful and optimistic before, but now it seemed like his heart was impaled with uncountable needles. It was painful to look at him.

"She likes this place most. If she's weak and trying to go to a place where somebody may find her, she'll arrive here..she knows I visit this place often." Tsunade turned herself around. "Listen, if you want to help us, and help yourself...you should wait for her here. Even if you're worn out, take a nap here. And if you think all hope is gone, maybe you will be surprised to find her here."

Tsunade hugged him softly "It's hard, but you should do so. Please."

It was a surprise to see the eager woman, the one with the strong will so caring. It was almost like a different person speaking to him, and he realized that he had to wait here for Sakura's return, together with Tsunade, the fifth Hokage.

Every day. And in every free minute.

---

"So amnesia?" Karu was drinking a glass of water while listening to Sakura. "Poor you. And like this, you ended up here?

"Right. And I'm trying to get back my memory slowly, but.." Sakura sighed. "I don't know."

It was already afternoon when Sakura could finally stop talking about what happened, not leaving out a single detail. Well, she left out quite some things.

"So you are a kunoichi?" Karu poured some more cold water in her glass. "You know, that's interesting. Because I was one too, but I was betrayed. Badly."

"How? I mean..." Sakura didn't know how to express what she thought, so Karu started talking freely, as if she was friends with the pink haired kunoichi for years already.

"You know, the place where I grew up, it's a place where girls marry early. Around fourteen or fifteen is usual, even if it's gross. So fifteen years ago, when I was a Chuunin of the Hidden Village of Rock, I was married to some great shinobi, and everyone thought it was a lucky match.

And how I ended up here? It's simple. Usually, shinobi who abadon their village are hunted down, just because they could tell precious things to enemy countries. I didn't go here myself.

It was a nice day in summer, as far as I remember. I'm pretty sure it was, I still remember the head in the plain, dusty lands of the Earth Country.

Me and this subject everybody referred to as my husband were sent of to some mission, I don't even remember the meaning of it. It led us to Rain, that's the Land where we are right now. It doesn't belong to any of the Big countries, and so it's usually named like the Hidden Village it keeps - Rain. Although it's said that even every of the little countries had it's name once, but they were forgotten.

So, where did I stop? We were sent here, right. And when we passed this little town, my husband just knocked me out, and when I woke up again, I was lying in a corner of some room.

They told me later that this bastard got a huge amount of money for me, and that he'll just report that I was torn to pieces by the enemy."

"And the people in your village really believed this?" Sakura was listening with some disgust about the abyss of male corruption.

"I was gone, and no one could prove that he was wrong - I bet he brought back my head protector, covered with animal's blood or something like that." Karu downed some water. "Men are bastards."

"Un, right, if you say so." The male voice made Karu turn in a sudden movement. In a really fast sudden movement.

Deidara was sitting in the window, looking rather curious about the dark haired visitor. The fact that she was moving like that alarmed him, but not enough to loose his patience and calmness.

"When you said you'll be back soon, I thought about a week or so." Sakura said smiling and waved a little.

Karu was more or less confused, looking at the Akatsuki sitting in the windowframe. Then she caught a glimpse of his half covered headprotector and she suddenly turned cool again.

"So it's you. I've heard of you." She sat down again. "Seven years ago, there was some kind of revolution in the Earth Country, and during that time, there were many strong clans who controlled the people..in the revolution many of them were killed, just erased from earth. And I heard that a boy from one of the strongest clans made a massacre because he went berserk after he couldn't prevent this.

Ninetynine people fell prey to him, and then he was gone, labled as S-Class Criminal for murdering civilians."

Sakura heard wood cracking in a alarming noise as Deidara's grip tightened around the frame. If he was boiling with anger right now, you wouldn't be able to tell from his face. "How do you know?"

"Customers. And also..." She looked into his eyes. "When I was told that many of this famous clan's members had beautiful, honey-colored eyes, I instantly knew which one was meant. But I don't understand..." Karu stood up walking to the door "...why you would join Akatsuki with your talent."

The moment Karu left the room and closed the door behind her, the wood cracked completely, giving in to the tight grip.

He took a look at Sakura who was still watching the door, but quickly grabbed his robe as he was in the movement to leave the room, and leave her to her thoughts.

"Don't go now." Her soft voice begged. "I think you have things to tell me."

---------

**Alright, it gets boring.**

**And before some people scream "Mary-Sueeeeee, help meeeee": Karu isn't a Mary-Sue. She just has a important place in my story for the developement of the plot, and she isn't going to be super-sexy-all-knowing-beautiful-friendly-moster-woman.**

**And for everyone who is confused with the way of speaking, I'll give a little explaination:**

**When Deidara is "in action", cursive text means that his Inner Deidara is talking**

**When Deidara is in action, sentences this '...' style are him thinking. Thinking is also a way to talk to his inner self somehow.**

**When Deidara is in action, this style "..." is normal talking. Sometimes he uses this to respond to Inner Deidara. Goofball.**

**And it's basically the same when Sakura is "in action", even if her Inner Sakura wasn't present yet.**

**When Tsunade or anyone else is "in action", cursive text ist mostly used for flashbacks, memories, etc. **

**All other things stay the same.**

**So, I hope you enjoy reading this trash. Good night, good fight. -wave-**


	6. Back to back

**Right, I know, this chapter IS short. But you can't have Deidara/Sakura with Deidara missing, accept it xD. After all, this one is PREGNANT with information, even if it might not be right. **

**Enjoy, and remember to pray in front of your miniature DeiSaku-Temple every day.**

**---**

Sitting back to back isn't quite a comfortable way to talk to each other, but since Deidara refused to face Sakura, he was satisfied when she sat down that way, and he also felt quite guilty everytime he felt her breathing through her back.

"I'm not angry." She finally said, and the blonde noticed that her voice was a little monotone when he couldn't see her face. "But you could tell me something about you, how's that?"

"Un." He rested his head on his right knee. "I don't know."

He felt her soft giggling. "We know each other for how many days? It's not likely that I would tell anyone, is it?"

"I just don't like to tell." He said, feeling her laughter again.

"So you don't like to talk to me." She sighed then, getting away from his back.

Suddenly it was cold on his back, making him lie down on the shabby couch. Staring at the ceiling was much more comfortable. "Un, it's not like I know you, I just want to have some peace with myself before I can leave you alone."

"I guess men are like this, if it comes to likes and dislikes, they shut their mouth, try to behave like they are on top of the world and they only give in if you start to cry on their shoulder, begging for the thing you want to know." Sakura's voice held a sarcastic tone in it, and Deidara wasn't sure if she threatened him or if she was just making fun of him. Either way, he didn't like what she just said.

"Not fair, un. I'm just trying to make you not so worried, since you know now that I'm a criminal." He moved his sight to Sakura, who stood at the window, gazing outside. "You know what, it's like this, you may sound happy, and you may be cheerful, un, but you look like a sad picture of yourself, and if you want to stay like this, I can go on talking if you like."

Sakura fluffed her hair a little, and turned around. The look in her eyes wasn't sad anymore, now it was like she was torn apart alive.

Deidara just applauded himself in his mind for making things worse and to make her fake a smile.

"So" she said, leaning on the cracked frame of the window. "Go one, I don't care if it makes me sad. And you should be happy if I worry, since I think you are perfectly okay on your own."

He blinked some times and moved himself into a sitting position again, while Sakura still stood by the window.

"Un, then I'll tell you the shortened story" he took off his headprotector and looked at it while thinking.

"You heard that I'm from the Hidden Village of Rock, and it's true what this woman said then. Seven years ago there was some kind of revolution or whatever going on, un. And there were many powerful clans who were against it, many had a bloodline limit, many not, but that wasn't even important. They just slaughtered the clans one by one, not caring if there were children, women or even babies, you know. The whole village was just a big slaughterhouse.

Un, and my family had this bloodline limit," he showed Sakura his palms "People always thought of it as creepy, even if my family was a great clan with many honorable shinobi. Well, I don't know if I am one of the last people with a bloodline limit from the Earth Country, but when the slaughterin hit my clan, rage and fear made me go berserk. Actually, that's why my people were feared, in battle or in situations that cause strong, negative emotions in us, we can only focus on battle, and sometime we loose our ability to think about everything else.

The stregth of this handicap used to get stronger because..un.." he paused, looking for an explaination. "..there was massive incest in the early generations, and some abilities got strong to the point where nobody can stop then, un. Also we were known for the strategic geniuses from our clan."

Sakura coughed a little. "You're drifting off, I think."

Deidara shook his head. "You wanted to know, un, so I tell you what I can tell you without getting you stuck in my business.

So I was there, not killing ninetynine civilians, but killing some and injuring many, un. I left the village immediatly after it, running away from the hunter-nin that were chasing me. At this time, I was only sixteen years old." He looked down at the cracked symbol of Rock. "Back then, they called me a genius with tactic, intelligent and that I have lots of potential."

Sakura looked at him from her place next to the window. Something in his story was familiar to her, and she didn't know what. It was like she heard something similar long ago.

"Now, what it your motivation?" she asked, with a mild smile on her face. "Why are you what you are?"

Deidara looked up with some surprise in his eyes.

"It's just the rage and hatred because I don't understand mankind, un." He watched at Sakura approached him.

"I think it's your right to be angry." She said as she sat down behind him again, leaning her back on his. "If people weren't supposed to be angry, nobody would notice what was done wrong."

Deidara felt her breathing again, this time flatter and more concentrated.

"Un, I'm not much better than those people, and I actually like it." He sighed "Actually, I would have let you die down there on the river if it wasn't for your headprotector."

Sakura just continued breathing.

"Eh...and actually I broke a law of the organization I'm in. I should have killed you already."

"I could do harakiri if you like to." She said in a tone that you could not tell to be serious or not.

"Un, don't throw away your life, I already made it a present to you once, and I can't heal you." He turned around, surprised that Sakura still sat straight after he removed his back from hers.

"I wouldn't. Can I ask you a question?" She turned her head.

"Un..sure?" To be true, Deidara wondered what she was about to ask. There weren't many questions he had left open in his story, and she didn't know about the goals of Akatsuki.

"Is it true that in you country women are married with fourteen or fifteen?" She asked, blinking curiously.

"Eh..." The blonde could feel himself blushing slightly. He didn't like many aspects of the culture of the Earth Country, and they embarressed him, being part of such a culture. "Yep, kinda, un. Many are when they are ready to bear children. That's why there was quite a big population and many towns that were only three houses, un.."

"That's disgusting." She said, turning her head away.

"It's not my fault, un." He said, going back into the back-to-back-state again. "Not every place is as friendly as Fire Country."

"I don't even know this country." Sakura got up again, walking to the window nervously. "Everything here is strange. Some days, the rain is washing the mud from the street, and then it's sunny and cloudy again. It's a familiar message, but I don't get it."

It seemed like hours that the kunoichi stood there, just staring out of the window, looking at the moon and humming a familiar melody. Actually, it was only like five minutes, but ones likes to forget time when looking at young woman, and this is right even for famous criminals, and poor Deidara had to admit that he liked Sakura, at least a little bit.

"Un: what are you looking for?" He suddenly asked, ripping at least his thoughts, whatever they were that moment, apart.

"Nothing really, just a black out." Sakura sighed and pushed some strands of hair aside. "If you feel uncomfortable being here, you can leave."

"I'll have to to leave anyway, un, but not because I don't like your presence." He moved his gaze to her feet, inspecting the sandals with the broad heels. Strange for a kunoichi really.

"How many weeks will it take this time? I bet your actual business just takes little time, but the way back here is your problem." She snickered, but then started coughing.

"Un, you are not quite healthy yet, are you?" He looked at her, suspecting her lungs to trick her in any possible way.

"It's alright - you don't want to know what's going on inside of me, really." croaking again, she forced herself to a smile.

"Un, right, it's not quite feminine." He said, standing up and grabbing his hat. "You'll be alright, won't you?"

"Perfectly fine." She said, but he was gone already.

---

Sakura wasn'r able to sleep at all. She sat there, cuddled into her blanket, sitting on her futon and busy with her thoughts. The story she heard about the massacres in the Hidden Village of Rock seemed quite familiar to her, she couldn't deny that she thought she heard something similar elsewhere already.

"Creepy..." she mumbled "It scares me, I don't know who I am, where I'm actually from, if I have a family or not, I don't remember anything."

Her words turned into sobs after some time, the sobs turned to crying.

And she cursed that fact that now there weren't feet to comfort her.


	7. Bird in a cage

"So blondie hasn't been back for about three weeks? He didn't look that rude, I dare to say." Karu looked up from the book she was skipping through, trying to find some useful things that made it easier for Sakura to regain the knowledge about important stuff shinobi should know.

Of course, the kunoichi was learning quickly, her brain was just refreshing the surpressed information, and easily recalled it.

But Karu wasn't actually concerned about her progress of regaining her memory, but more about her health. Since the moment Sakura had recovered from the bad cold she caught weeks ago, she wasn't really healthy again, coughing and looking paler than usual. The older woman guessed that it was an effect of her amnesia, and her helplessness. She just didn't want to get healthy again, her mind just said that it wasn't worth getting healthy if nobody really cared.

And since mind and body are closer than people usually think, her body didn't recover that good. And the way Sakura lacked sleep wasn't really helpful either, but Karu couldn't think about a way to help her. She already asked Sakura if she wanted to see the doctor, but she refused, and one can't force woman that made a decision.

The blackhaired woman looked up from the book. "So, you look like you want to ask something?"

Sakura nodded, placing her chin on her hand while leaning on the low table in her room. "Where did you get those books from? I can't imagine that you go to a random store and ask for books about the ways ninja-techniques work."

Karu chuckled and closed the book with a loud clap. "Sometimes my customers" she coughed "leave their bags and stuff in the brothel, so I just take it - it's useful as you can see, and usually they don't come back for it. Shinobi these days are pretty carefree about this." She shrugged.

Sakura studied the cover of the book Karu had read a moment ago, it was some old, smelling piece about Handseals and whatever.

"Maybe" Karu began "I should tell you more about this town. I haven't for a long time, and you should know why you're still here."

Sakura suddely looked up and gave Karu a questioning look.

"You know, this town isn't really...usual. It's a town that was built around a brothel, and that's not a good thing usual. Because all the scum comes here, looking for some...fun. Maybe that creates a strange aura around this place, or it's just the people that want to be left alone here. But anyways, if you are someone who's searched for, or whatever, you are pretty safe here. Why you want to know? Why in the world here, in the mittle of a country with a hidden village? Easy answer. Because this country is small. The shinobi might be tough, but a small country doesn't deserve any attention. And I can promise you" Karu took Sakura's hand "the Anbu from Konoha just won't come here. If they do, we're all screwed, but it's unlikely."

"And why" Sakura blinked, rather confused as it seemed "do you tell me?"

The woman with the raven hair rolled her eyes, shook her head and got up to fix her sloppy Yukata. "Do you EVER listen to what I tell you all day?" She sighted, peeking out of the window for a moment.

Summer had moved in pretty fast, and still, it rained every second day. Why did she even wonder, she asked herself sometimes, she lived here for almost fifteen years now, she didn't know something else.

"Why are you like that?"

"I don't know. Empty and tired. Sometimes I think it would have been better to drown there in the river."

Karu shook her head, then opening her mouth as if to say something, when suddenly a plush duck hit Sakura's head from behind.

Actually, the woman tried not to laugh about the sight of the plush duck almost knocking out the kunoichi that didn't notice that Deidara had arrived in the meantime, holding the toy in one hand and looking seriously pissed when Sakura stated her wish to die.

"Well, well." Kura giggled. "Loverboy has arrived." Making herself comfortable she watched the scene.

"Un, you are not that stupid as to wish for things like that, aren't you?" He grabbed the plush duck again, brushing some dirty from the white fabric. "I'm not risking my sorry ass just to hear you say that you want to die."

"Someone who looks like you shouldn't talk about dying." She inspected his face, which was - to her and Karu's surprise - beaten black and blue for some reason "You look more dead than I would wish to be, you know. It actually looks...really bad. What was it, wrestling with an elephant?"

Either Sakura didn't know it or she didn't plan it, but she had knocked the blonde offguard, and now he was searching for an explaination, which obviously was embarrassing for him, according to the nervous looks he actually _shot_ across the room.

"Actually, un..." He scratched his cheek, as if it would help him to say what happened " 't was a shark who was drunk like hell, so he could see the edge of the great meadow next to the river - his senses were gone, un, and he _insisted _to get a nude sculpture of himself. Un, but not only I look bad now. Never refuse to do things for aggressive, drunken guys who look like..."

He was rudely interrupted by the women, who were bursting with laughter, holding themselves as they bent forward almost.

"...Un, what's funny?" He asked, hugging his plush duck still, and looking confused by the behaviour of the women. "And why did you call me Loverboy, woman?"

Karu wiped some tears from the edges of her eyes. "Not important...you are worth your weight in gold, Duckie. You should have your own stageperformance. Ever thought of being a gypsy?"

"Un." He gave her glance that could have crushed mountains within a second.

"All righties, I'm off here...I'm hungry." Karu waved to her young, pink haired friend and took the books she had brought. "I'll be here tomorrow or so if you like."

"Now what's with that duck, Deidara?" Sakura asked while she closed the window again and while Deidara was taking his soaked cloak off.

Oh, how he hated rain. Rain was the spawn of some evil God, or whatever.

_And it really ruins your hairstyle, doesn't it, woman?_

"Un..I thought you might like things like those, all girls do." He placed it on the tiny, low table that was usually standing somewhere in the corner. "Saw it at some toy store, and all I got to hear there was if my daughter had birthday."

"Daughter? Wouldn't it be really strange if I was your daughter? I mean...I don't think you are like twice my age, although I don't really know it."

"More like sister, un...but you don't look as wacky as my mammy did." He had the image of the pale blonde, boney, tall woman flashing through his mind. His mother didn't look like Sakura at all, and people would call him stupid if he would try to make her his sister. They wouldn't match as siblings in a thousand years.

"Only when I see an elephant fly. You like the total opposite of me." She turned around placing herself sitting in front of the duck and lifting it up. "Plushies are nice, thank you..." She smiled, and the first time he had no idea if she was happy or only faking happiness.

"So you like ducks?" He moved his head a bit to the side. "Un...and I thought you would go for kitten or puppies. Just took what I liked most."

"Ducks are funny.." Sakura placed the gift on her lap, still holding it tightly. "The ones that are around here learned how to dive, usually they only put their heads under water. Karu showed me while you were gone." She giggled while seeing his face putting on a icy expression. "Don't be like this, she's nice."

"Un, but.." he started, looking at his feet. "That's not it. You...look like you haven't been well for weeks, un."

"I was very well!" She pointed her finger at him in a scolding gesture, while adding with a hint of irony: "You shouldn't throw stones while you sit in a house of glass, Sir, you look like you had a random encounter with a stampede that suddenly appeared in your bedroom while sleeping!"

"Un, what are you trying to imply?" he leaned back on the (still) shabby couch he had set himself down on. "It's not like I'm the only one who got a nice portion of beating, un."

"I'm not saying you are weak, I'm saying that you shouldn't say that I look bad while you are looking like a complete mess." Sakura smiled and got up slowly.

She was looking bad, and she couldn't deny it. She had deep shadows under her eyes and she lost weight, but still, she didn't look like she was crushed by a random avalanche.

"Don't tell me you'll fix it, if I end up with deformed bones and no eyes left, I'll throw you into the river again, un!" He suddenly hissed, looking shocked.

"You were gone too long, I know what I'm doing. Or at least I think so..." Sakura smiled, and somehow Deidara thought it was a sadistic smile.

_Great heavens...kill it with fire, boy! Now! She'll make you a even messier mess!_

Wincing, he gave in when Sakura's fingertips were placed on his cheeks. He just hoped that she was aware of what she was doing now.

"Now stop whining, are you a man or what?" She placed her finger on his nose, forcing him first to open his eyes, and then to feel the sudden urge to sneeze.

"I think I'm blind." He sighted, trying to tease her, and being not surprised that she didn't go for that one. "Un, how did learn to use your skills without sudden outbursts of emotion?"

_You are choking the pronouns again, moron._

Sakura hugged her duck gift again. "Karu taught me. She's a terrible teacher, but at least I know a little bit now. But don't expect me to discuss it in depth."

"Un, never." He sighed. He wasn't comfortable with the fact that his selfmade field of duty was hanging out with a random whore.

"I know what you are thinking. But that's her job." Sakura scolded. "Don't judge her for that."

"It's my job to blow things up, un, and people call me a random loon. So I am allowed to do that too." He watched Sakura sitting on the ground again, and he was quite satisfied when he noticed that she was already attached to the fluffy duck.

"I don't." She shook her head. "But then again, I don't know enough about that to judge you, so I'll say nothing about. Right?"

Now was she trying to press secrets out of him again? 'Don't ask.' he thought "Clever." he said.

"I know. It's good if I don't know more." She sighed, giving him a questioning look. "And now?"

"Actually, un" he pointed at the window "I wanted to take you outside, but rain is the spawn of evil."

_So you are related to rain? I didn't know the great Deidara is a drop of water! Quickly, give me something to give him some flavour!_

"Aren't you concerned?" Sakura asked, staring at his cloak, that was slowly wetting the shabby couch.

"Un: why?" He checked his hair while looking at her. As expected, it was wet too.

"You could get cold or something..." She twirled a strand of pink hair around her finger.

Now, at this point one would say that he was immune to this stuff, or that bacteria avoid him. But, cursing his helplessness, Deidara could actually _feel_ his face turning various shades of red suddenly, and that was just because nobody really cared for him usually. This moment he was happy that half of his face was covered with his hair, and he cursed that the light hair was a great contrast to the red face he was supposed to have.

"I am..." he started, accidently pulling on his hair "...told you, didn't eye...I."

Sakura, who looked a bit confused, suddenly snapped her finger. "Of course, you did. Or at least I think so." She studied his face, then shaking her head again, looking resignated.

"What...un?" Deidara felt his head cooling a little.

Sakura again stood up, pressing the plushie against her chest wanderin around the room.

'Two solutions' it worked inside of the blonde's mind 'one, her psyche is damaged now, or two she's thinking.'

_Or she's in desperate need for movement? Or is she trying to get a hole in the ground? She's testing her nail-polish? No, wait, that's your job, woman._

'Would you mind to stop calling me woman?'

_I won't._

'I bet you will.'

_I WON'T! How would you force me anyway?_

'Developing a second personality.'

"---do you listen to me?" Sakura cut off his conversation. "Anyone there?"

He shook his head, and to his surprise, the uncomfortable heat was gone.

"Un...what is it? I had...things to settle...within my head.." Realizing how stupid he sounded, he broke of his sentence with a waving gesture of his hand. "Un...what were you talking about?"

Sakura snickered, pushing her hair back with a fast movement, before sitting down next to him.

Now heat again.

Cursed be the day Deidara found this kunoichi in the mud of Rain.

Why in the world was he able to carry her around like it was nothing, but why was he blushing when this damn girl sat next to him?

He could almost feel his pupil shrinking in his intact eye.

"Two questions." Sakura smiled, facing him. "First, one of your eyes is missing, isn't it?"

"Un, you know what I told you about my family? It was useless when I was born, I had it replaced later on..."

"Alright, alright." Sakura made him stop. "Second is, why are you afraid of me?"

"Af..raid?" He tried to read her eyes. And he realized that she wasn't joking, nor did she mean being afraid in a matter of her strength. "What, un...do you mean?"

"You are not comfortable with girls, aren't you? You are afraid of them." She smiled in the mild way, not turning away her gaze from the honey-colored eye that had a frightened look on it.

Deidara in the meantime had pulled of his headprotector and held it in his left hand, pressing it so strong that he was sure that the metal made sounds.

"I told you...or didn't I? They told me I'm a monster with those cursed hands of mine...I don't hate women, Sakura, un, I only...I know that my family will be history when I die, so...you understand me?"

"Sure I do, but that's no reason for ein uncomfortable around me, isn't it?" She smiled, propping herself up on her knees.

The couch made some aching sounds.

"You shouldn't be down like that, you know. I bet that somewhere outside, there's a girl waiting for someone like you, but you haven't met her yet. It can be now or in fifty years, and it doesn't matter, so don't be like that."

And with that Sakura took his head in one of her hands and placed a comforting kiss on his forehead.

**---**

**Ohmygosh, kissing, it's porn!11one x3"**

**So, this chapter took quite long for my standarts, I'm sorry. **

**I'd like to respond to all the nice reviews, but hell, I'm so lazy -cries- I'm sorry my sweeties, even if you are only a handful.**

**I promise you to overcome my sins. -waves-**

**Oh yea, you might have noticed, it's a bit ooc, or at least I think so. But since I write about a alternate plotline, I think it might be okay.**

**Three cheers for Karu x3**

**See you next chapter :D**


	8. Haunted People

**Oh, that's so embarrassing...it's been so long since I wrote the last chapter, so I had to look up where I stopped. If you could hear my nervous laughter...hehe...**

**Well, 25 reviews, that's more than I expected when I started this crap - at first it was only some silliness, but now it's my own project - insert nervous laughter here - actually it was since chapter 2.**

**Well then, I should go on, there are some individuals out there who cry for some birdies, as I remember...eheh.**

**-**

"I don't understand you..." Deidara sat in a corner of the small room, yawning and looking unbelievable tired. The long discussion about the reasons why you don't push away girls who insist on kissing you left him worn out. He accepted that it wasn't nice to push the pink haired kunoichi away, especially with uncontrolled strength, but he didn't get the reason why she had to discuss it for two hours after that.

Now she was standing in front of the window and watched how the weather periodically changed from sunny to rainy and back.

"What?" She turned around, looking rather surprised.

"Un..." He rubbed the back of his head, yawning again. "I mean, how can you stand it to be in here like...twenty-four hours seven days a week? I would go crazy...un."

"Oh..." She sighed. "And I thought it was something important." She shook her head, turning to her window again. "It's easy if you don't know where to go. I can look out of the window, and I know the village because Karu was nice enough to show it to me, but after all..I don't know."

The blonde Akatsuki shrugged, looking at the fluffy duck that hadn't left Sakura's arms for hours. Somehow he cursed the fact that he couldn't get something more decent instead of a stuffed toy, but he soon realized that he wouldn't have had a clue what kind of presents girls like Sakura would like - he just didn't know her tastes, and - he was sure - she didn't either.

"So that's not important to you?" He leaned his head on the wall, noticing that some plank on the ground was squeaking like a pig that got slaughtered. "Then...un...how are you?"

Sakura turned again, marching towards the rolled-up futon and placing herself on it. "Eh...haven't you asked that before?"

"I don't remember, un." He shrugged, rubbing his intact eye. "You just look so...tired and sick. Un. Like someone who had a fever for weeks." He poked his own cheek then. "And you are pale, un."

The girl shook her head wildly, sending pink strands of hair to fly. "It's not like a bad thing. I feel fine, really. I'm only really tired."

One shouldn't think that Deidara didn't notice that she was lying, but like all men, he decided to shut his mouth and wait until Sakura would need help, or otherwise, that much he knew, she would impersonate the saying 'To hug a cactus'. And that's would help her even less, from his point of view.

"Allrighties then, un." He rolled up the cloak that looked a little crushed and worn out already and placed it on his knees, only to set his head on it. "Mind if I take a nap, un? You really got me tired just with the way you talked." He smiled in a way a mother would call heart-warming before making himself comfortable on the ground, leaving Sakura and her duck to themselves.

---

Karu made some notes. On the side of a bookpage.

She was busy trying to find out what she actually should teach the young, forgettable kunoichi of which she almost knew nothing. But she wanted to make fast progress, the rumor of the mysterious girl with pink hair made it's round in town, and soon some people with not so nice interests would like to know more about the girl.

Sure, Karu thought that having an Akatsuki as a bodyguard should be a nice thing, but only a fool trusts those guy without doubt. It was a pity that Sakura didn't remember what horrible things Akatsuki did in the past. And that she was actually flirting with something that could detonate every momenten if angered.

The raven haired woman shook her head and made another note in the middle of the page, striking some words. The lad was a nice and soft-hearted guy when not in rage or battlerush. Maybe too nice, but that she didn't know. The story of what he did to the revolting people years ago was already a scary example for the power that was withing someone who was able to join Akatsuki, and Karu was sure that Deidara was by far not the strongest guy of this flock.

---

It must have been late after midnight when Deidara woke up from a nightmare. The scream of the girl in his dream was far too real for his taste, but then again the whole dream about this town was tasteless, and he began to wonder if such dreams result from things like lovesickness or sexual frustration.

He was sure that he saw lots of dead women and - what made him feel strange now - lots of inner organs lying around.

He scratched his head, loosening his ponytail, when he noticed Sakura, still more or less dressed and not looking tired, standing at the window, staring outside with one hand at the glass.

Sighting, the blonde with the sore muscles got up, wearing an uncomfortable expression (which could have been because is muscles were sore or because he was still tired like hell).

"Unn...you know it's late, don't you?" He looked over Sakura's shoulder (or better: over Sakura's head), trying to seek what the was looking at, and not having a hard time solving this puzzle.

"It's burning somewhere in town." Sakura said with glassy, tired eyes. Actually, for the poor Deidara who inspected her, she was looking spooky and ill.

"I see, un." He looked at the bright flame that was ravaging somewhere, hopefully far away.

He seriously asked himself if he was sleepwalking or something like that, and if he could accidently blow up things when doing that. But he shooed the thought away, thinking that the sound of explosion would wake him up for sure.

"Why could it be burning in the middle of the night?" Sakura turned her head a little to the side. "I hope nobody gets hurt."

_Boy, this girl is far too sweet and nice for you. Do me a favor and don't tell her you blow things up usually._

"Un...won't you go to bed again?" He peeked at the still rolled up futon. "Well..un. Or at least try to?"

Sakura turned around suddenly, going to the futon and making it pop open with a single move of her hand, making the young man stare in disbelief.

And as soon as she was lying down, she was fast asleep and turning around to find a comfy position.

"Un...now.." He scratched his head, flipping back some strands of hair.

He gave up soon, noticing that he still had his sandals on.

After removing the delinquents, he got back to his rolled up cloak, placing it as some kind of sleepingbag on the shabbiest couch ever seen, and trying to get some sleep.

But even after hours, the screams of the woman were still haunting him.

---

"You don't need to take me by your hand, really!" Sakura yelled, while stumbling after Deidara who pulled her hand with a childish happiness. Even after the rather spooky night, he decided not to ask Sakura about her strange sleepwalking habit. If it was sleepwalking and not a try of her body to regain memories through sleepwalking.

Now he was walking her through the nearby woods, pulling her hand like little boys pull their mother's hand when the want them to buy a lollipop.

"Alright." He suddenly stopped walking, grinning like he had won something nice. "Un, you look there, do you see the sparrows on the branches?"

Sakura looked at a flock of sparrows who were watching the humans with curiousity from a high branch. Sakura smiled and folded her hands. "Sweet, I didn't know there were so many of them here."

"Now, look here, un." Sakura squealed with happiness when she saw the little claybirds sitting on his shoulders. They chirped and flapped their wings, making the real Sparrows come down from the high gazebo and settling themselves at Deidara's feet.

"That's so wonderful, for sure!" Sakura looked at the chirping horde of birds who started molesting poor Deidara. "I think I haven't seen something pretty and sweet like this before!"

Deidara chuckled, trying to dodge the bird army that was inspecting his created birds with interest. "Un, I know you would like it, I think you are the only one who does."

Sakura smiled, bowing down to the sparrows. "The little guys here do too, you shouldn't say nobody does."

"But you like them because they are pretty, un, don't you?" He finally shook himself to get rid of the feathered infiltrators. "It's not because the are..well, never mind, un." He put the birds on a branch, leaving them to the mercy of the sparrows that were hopping around.

He settled himself on the grassy ground that was already dry and smelled like fresh salad somehow. Sakura was still watching the birds, and with great pleasure the blonde realized that he found out that she liked simple things - such as little birds only he could make.

Sakura settled herself next to him without him even taking notice.

"So, you seem to think about something." She pulled her knees to her chest, looking curious.

"Eh.." He tipped his nose. "Un, yes, I really am. I know why you are so tired and why you look like crap, un." He moved his head to the side, grinning. "Even if it's not nice to say this to a lady, I don't see one here. And beside, you really look like crap, un. And you only do that because you sleepwalk, and you are talking random shiznit while doing that, really! It's like some kind of freakshow, similar to where I usually hang out with those other guy, only that this is a one-man show, un!"

"Oh, really?" She blinked. "So that's why I don't remember what I did at night? Strange." She placed her head on her hand. "Funny."

"Not funny, don't do such things when I just woke up, you scared the daylights out of me, un." He crossed his arms.

"Daylights? Wasn't it night?" Her confused face pleased Deidara somehow.

"Don't think too much about it, un. Better think of a solution for your sleeping-issue. I don't really like the idea to bury you somewhere just because you died because of your lack of sleep, un." He grabbed his ponytail, checking the tie that held it. "Maybe you should sleep at daytime and take your walks at night, un?"

"But I'm afraid to go out at night-" She was stopped by a wave of Deidara's hand.

"Let me finish, un. It's not like I can't visit you at night, can I, un?" He was smiling like a child, but that suddenly died and made place for a comical expression, as if he had realized something. "Don't tell me, it sounds too wrong...un.."

Sakura giggled. "But...I thought you should be a bit more more occupied if you are searched everywhere?"

He shrugged. "I'm a little left behind, I think...I'm not super strong and no big, bad killing machine, I don't even enjoy this stuff...everything I do is thinkinh about a way to make better, more efficient explosives - and that's not even entertaining. You don't want to know just how often this stuff messed my hair up when it went wrong. And it smells, un." He sighed. "But well, my partner, who I think defeats his enemies just by scaring them to death with his usual ugliness, enjoys this break. I bet he's doing some of his strange..puppet projects now. He enjoys inner organs and stuff, you should know, un..." Deidara made a disgusted face. "You see, I'm just left behind, so I can spend my time with my special friend."

"The butterfly that just approached your knee?" She looked at it suspiciously.

"Un...not really, but that's nice, too." He said, noticing the rainbow-colored visitor that had a break on his knee. "I like being with you, your not a freaky fishman, a emotionless familymurderer or a cannibal or something - leave alone a puppet, un..."

"It sounds odd...but somehow I have a feeling that criminals or not, the mix sounds like many pillowfights." She smiled in a ironic way.

"Un...where does THAT come from? That's like...bizarre, Sakura-chan!" He stared at her like she was some odd alien who was just drooling a a green slime, telling him that his brain looks very tasty.

"I don't know..." She shrugged. "Well, if it's uncomfortable for you to talk about this, let's just change the topic - you might have other things to talk about?" She picked a flower, carefully counting the petals.

"Un..." He stared hat the sky some seconds, watching the clouds go. "I'm sorry that I pushed you, really, un...does it still hurt?"

Sakura shrugged, smiling and still looking at the little daisy in her hand. "The shoulder's just a little turned, nothing to worry about."

"But it hurts, un, doesn't it? This just shouldn't happen." He moved his gaze to the ground, obviously embarrassed. "You know...un, just because I'm stronger than you, this...this just should not give me the right to do what I feel like doing."

"It's alright, really." Sakura said with a warm, soft voice. "If you like to, you can make it go away, just turn it in the right direction."

He looked at her with disbelief in his eyes. "But isn't this a medic's thing to do?"

She smiled in a light, comfortable way. "I'm sure you can do it, you can only break my whole bone to little pieces. In the worst case."

"Harakiri then, un." He looked at her shoulder. "So what should I do?"

"Just press some fingers into this muscle and then pull the arm in your direction." She explained, while she pointed at the points like she'd never done something else. "It's actually not really a medic's thing, It's more like First Aid or something, even usual doctors can do that, or at least that was what it said in the books." She turned her back to the puzzled blonde. "If something cracks, you've done the right thing."

"Sounds like it's as easy as cooking eggs, un." While he searched for the right spots on the small shoulders, he inspected the unusual hair of the kunoichi, and he really couldn't remember that there was anyone else with this kind of hair. "So, un...so I should just pull? Don't hit me if it hurts, will you?" He just proceeded, without waiting for an answer.

After the cracking sound her arm made, she waved it up and down. "That's perfectly fine." She smiled tuning around again. "What was the problem now?"

"Un, problem was that my hands are big and my movement is clumsy." He looked at Sakura inspecting her arm.

"Not true. You wouldn't talk about your sculptures if you would really think that your movement is that bad." She fluffed her hair und rubbed her eyes.

"Got me." He looked at her with a questioning look. "Un...what's wrong?"

"Nothing." She leaned her head on his shoulder, enjoying the surprised look on his face. "I'm just tired...I bet you don't mind me."

"Not really, go ahead, un. Just don't sleep too long, or else I'm also going to lose an arm."

"Screw it, I'm just happy that it's not artificial like your eye and feels rather soft." And with a last sound of Deidara chuckling, Sakura drifted away.


	9. The slaughtered Lamb

Sakur put the last four eggs that were left from dinner down on the table in her room, along with something that slightly matched orange juice. Actually, it looked more like breakfast than dinner.

"Your arm is alright again? I didn't mean to squeeze it that hard, but I think I had a nightmare and than I squeeze my pillow usually..."

Deidara gave her a pained look, before he continued the massage of the arm Sakura slept on before. Everything would have been alright if she hadn't taken it under sudden pressure, making it numb for some minutes. Now he had an eerie feeling in this limb, and he felt the need to go around and pull out some trees with his bare hands.

_Nice boys don't do that, honeybunny._

'What's with that nickname?'

_Just going to get you used to this stuff, you'll hear it every day if you're going to get married._

'When did I say that I'm going to get married?'

"Look, they got this stuff leftover from dinner, even if it looks like breakfast." Sakura smiled and began to crack the surface of one cooked egg with a spoon, while Deidara was only looking at the eggs like they were something weird and unusual.

"What is it? Are you a vegeterian?" She peeled the egg while looking at the bewildered Deidara, who shook his head enegerically.

"No, un, it's not that..."

"Allergic? Do you get sick from eggs?"

"No, no, it's.."

"It's because where we come from, people only eat fried eggs."

Sakura turned around to see Karu standing in the doorframe, wearing a neat, light blue Kimono with a firework pattern.

Sakura turned her head to the side. "What?"

"Our people don't know cooked eggs, we only know fried ones - you know, in a frying pan. So he doesn't really know how to peel an egg." The woman smiled and sat down next to Sakura.

"Right..." Deidara tried to hide the heavy, crimson blush that lasted on his face.

"Don't make a show out of it, boy." Karu took his plate and began to peel the eggs. "It's not like that's something to be ashamed of."

Sakura giggled and began to chew happily, watching the scene and how the woman with the raven black hair peeled his food like a mother. And it suddenly shot in her mind that maybe that's the thing Karu may have missed that most and that now had - people to care about.

"By the way" She handed that plate back to a Deidara who didn't know if he should throw it into her face or be thankful. "I brought you some books, since you will need some stuff to read, I believe."

She pulled out a bundle and placed it next to her. "I'll have to go already, be careful sweetheart, I believe there are things going on in this town, and they don't please me."

When Karu left the scene, the both of them exchanged a look.

"You Rock-People must be strange." Sakura said after a while, giggling.

"Un, sure, you have seen it. And only strange people make the legal age for marriage fifteen." Deidara looked at the Orange-Juice-like-drink. "I didn't know the woman could be that nice. Mama was a little like that, un." He took a sip of the liquid. "But I prefer girls that are my age, actually, un." He added with a grin.

"So how old are you?" Sakura asked, with a curious look on her face.

"Twenty-four this winter." He placed the glass with the strange orange-like stuff far away from him. "Un, so I would like to ask you the same, but I guess you can't give a proper answer."

"Smart, but I don't feel like sixteen, at least." She watched the fight between the liquid and the blonde, and began to smile. "So what will you do to keep me awake tonight?"

"Un..." He scratched the back of his head. "Tell you about all the girls that called me a nasty monster in the las few years?"

"So mean, you aren't nasty or a monster." Sakura made an angry face. "Saying this like that is nasty."

"Un, don't think too much about it, that's over. People say many things when they're young." He moved his gaze to the window where the sky was darkening a little. "It's not that touching anymore."

"Still it's mean." She moved herself to her knees.

"Un...would you like to stop it?" He smiled in an uncomfortable way. "It's strange enough that you can't eat without a fork without wondering where all the food goes suddenly, un, but it's even worse to discuss this stuff."

She shook her head. "I'm sorry, but it makes me angry."

"Now you apologize, un. I don't understand you, you just care too much." He noticed that she looked at him with surprise. "For someone whos doesn't know much about herself, I mean, un. Don't look at me like that, that's nothing bad."

He felt uncomfortable, and he knew that the sudden change in Sakura's features was the source of this strange feeling.

Deidara couldn't stand to look into the eyes of people, so much he knew. He like looking into her eyes, that was something he knew, too. And he felt awful when he knew that her eyes looked sad because he told her something bad.

In this case, he basically said that he didn't want her to care.

And he knew it was wrong.

"Listen, don't look at me like this, un." He said, again. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean that I don't want you to care."

"It's alright." She forced herself to smile and pulled her knees to her chest. "Maybe you should leave now?"

"But.." He looked at her, sighed and got his cloak right, everything with a slight guilt. "I'll see you, un.."

It wasn't even five minutes later that the blonde man stood in front of Sakura again.

"I'm not going." He stated, throwing his stuff in some corner again. "If I'm the one who made you feel bad, I should get you feel better again, right, un?" He shook his head, taking her hand. "I don't like the thought of leaving you like this."

Sakura was paralyzed with surprise, trying to force a word from her throat. "But it's okay."

"It's not, it's not, un." He began to smile in a boyish way. "And I like being with you, really, so why shouldn't I apologize for my own rude behavior?"

"You have a fever, right?" Sakura moved away slowly. "There's nothing wrong!"

Deidara sighed again, letting himself fall on the shabby little couch. "What SHALL I do?" He looked at her. "I don't know, but I have a bad feeling, un...and that's not because this juice was bad."

"Just say that you are worried, but don't do such spooky things!" She poked his forehead and moved her attention towards the books that Karu brought her. "Your mind surely is twisted."

He shrugged while he watched the girl who just took a look at the (seemingly) boring books.

"I can tell you my the title what's written in those books, even without reading them. That's such a strange feeling."

"Go ahead, un." He tried to seek the titles of the written work, only to find out that it was some stuff about herbs, medical treatments and the anatomy of the human body (as if Sakura would mistake the liver for the lungs).

"It's about herbs, and mainly about the poison that can be won from some, about the ways to cure these poisons and about herbs that prevent feverish colds, headache, cramps, pregnancy and such stuff." She pointed at the book. "Boring. I know all that."

"So that means you remember something, un?" Deidara, being a brave soul, tried to hide that talks about the ways of medics bored him to death.

"Only such things. Do you want a new liver? I can transplant one without making a bloody mess." She clapped her hands.

"I refuse...thank you..un.." He poked the un-eyed side of his head, making some metal do noises. "I should have known such a good doctor years before, when I still had this lame, blind eye."

"Don't worry" Sakura made a step towards him, bowing a little to look into his eye, seeing her mirror-image. "I think you look perfectly fine now."

"Yep, but you would like me better with two of them, wouldn't you, un?"

"What do you mean?" She moved her fists to her hips.

"You know what I mean."

"Now what do you think should I say now?" She made a grim face. "Shall I preach that people can fall even for someone who hasn't got legs and arms?"

"I don't really think we should discuss this here, should we, un?" He nervously looked around, as if the walls had grown ears all of the sudden, putting on his cloak and surprinsingly, also his hat (which he had to hold in place with one hand). "We'll leave through the usual entrance, not the window this time. I feel spied on here, un."

Before the kunoichi could even think about a word that could hold him from pulling her with him on one hand, they were already on their way outside, only followed by the feared look of the inn-keeper, who had not forgotten how Deidara threatened him on the girl's first day of staying.

But, his eyes were open, and he never even saw this guy leaving with her, eating with her or even noticed any noises in the room. And carefully, he began to spread stories about the strange couple - and especially about the girl.

While Deidara was pulling Sakura over, she felt the threatening looks of the inn-keeper in her back - and she didn't feel well with it.

"So what is it?" Sakura finally asked when they reached a place near the woods, where they began to walk along in the dark, with Sakura tolerating that Deidara was still holding her hand (while the hat was resting in the other). The fact that the whole place was as quiet as a grave and that the only place that was lightened bright and that could be seen from their position was the brother made her feel chilly, even if the summer night was mild and warm, and she felt quite safe since she seemed to remember how to rip inner organs with just touching opporents in the right place.

"You would like me better with both eyes intact, wouldn't you, un?" She felt some soft pressure on her hand, making her feel guilty.

"That's not true." She finally slowed Deidara down, walking next to him. "Or do you think it matters much if a person has both eyes or both legs or arms?"

Deidara shook his head, knowing that it was useless to argue with women if they were right, even if he would feel strange if he would have to deal with someone whose nerves were connected to an artificial eye. And he told himself that she shouldn't forget the icky mouths on the hands she was holding now and his talent to get lost even on the way to the bathroom.

"So what exactly do you want to tell me?" She still held his hand, while the bell on the hat was making a soft noise with every step they went on.

"It's just lately I feel like a moron, un." He put on a soft, melancholic smile. "You know, I do things I wouldn't do usually, and it's because I like you so much."

Sakura stopped walking, giggling a little.

"Nothing to laugh about, un." He said with a hurt face.

"It's not you, don't worry!" She said, pinching his nose softly. "I just knew already."

He snorted in a funny way. "Girls."

"Not girls!" She pulled his sleeve. "Karu just said 'It's like he's screaming it in your face and you are a stupid girl not noticing!', and then I thought about it and she was right."

Now the blonde was just happy that it was night and dark enough that Sakura could not see that he was blushing brightly red around his nose.

"And...may I ask...what about you. That's embarrassing, un, I don't know what to do, actually." He tried to sink his face into the collar of the cloak a little more.

Sakura just hummed a little, like people do when they are thinking. "I don't know, it's a feeling in my chest" she said, while she moved her arms fully around Deidara's arm. "but what shall I do if someone's waiting for me where I come from? I may have da fiancee, and what then? I don't know, it's strange, being torn between two things..."

"Un, you are guilty because...someone else ate the cake?" He asked, trying to handle the soft pressure on his arm. "I mean..what's wrong with that, un? I would go and search for you if you would be missing, and not wait and sit at home until you are told to be dead, un. So if somebody is waiting," he focussed his look on the hat in his hand, "it's somebody who doesn't really love you like someone who...loves you, un?"

Sakura looked up from his shoulder, trying to smile, but only causing her sorrow to break through and take the form of a waterfall of tears that rumbled down her cheeks under heavy sobbing.

She had loosened her grip around the arm of shocked Deidara so fast that he just wondered what he had done to force such a bitter reaction.

"Do you do this everytime someone falls in love with you, un?" He tryed to get back into balance before he could fall to the ground. He lifted her head again by her chin, even if he feared that she could bite his fingers off in the hysteria she had now. He grinned and dried her face with his sleeve. "It's just me, you can beat me to a pulp if you don't agree with me, un."

"No, silly..." She smiled in a rather amused way. Her voice was giving in a little, being smothered by tears and sobbing. "The last days, I thought about the people that belonged to me previously, you know..I don't know, it's like I forgot something that was really important to me, something I had to do...a duty to fulfill, or to get back somthing precious that I lost."

"I don't really understand you, un." He had thrown his hat into the grass next to him. "And I guess I can't help you, it's not like I could bundle you up and bring you back to the Fire Country, un."

"It's alright." She sighed, choking down some tears. "I'm fine right now."

"Sure? You look like a mess, un." He moved some wet strands of hair from her face, before hugging her softly (or better to be said: shyly). "You shouldn't think too much, I bet it will all solve when time goes by."

He felt how Sakura's chest went up and down while she giggled. Not seeing what a person does, but feeling it made his hands ache, he just noticed.

Before they walked back to the hotel, there was a strange smell in the air, like burning flesh.

And it lasted until they arrived back.

**-------**

**Woah...sorry folks, but my head is empty now. I know what will happen, but I feel like this fluffy stuff just sucked out all my energy.**

**So...sorry if I made your teeth rot with this stuff, it's just a little too sweet.**

**I promise you something bloody for the next chapters! **

**And forgive me if I sometimes make strange mistakes - I fall back into german if I don't concentrate...**


	10. Fire

"Funny." Sakura hand slung her arms around Deidara's shoulder while he was carrying her back to town - piggyback. "You smell that too?"

Deidara tried to shrug, but failed miserably. Instead, he made sure that Sakura sat in a safe position and gently placed the Akatsuki hat on her head. "What should I smell, un?"

"This! It smells like someone forgot to take the turkey out of the oven!" Sakura looked around furiously, as if she was searching for something specific. Then she pointed her finger towards a large crowd of people. "It's getting interesting."

Deidara sighed, even if he was curious what was going on there all of the sudden, and in the early hours of the night, so he moved closer, trying to get a clue of what was going on.

What he saw didn't make him or Sakura happier.

There were a bunch of men (supposly rogue shinobi, but Deidara didn't care about that at the moment), who pulled a young woman through the streets, on her hair. She was screaming stuff he didn't understand, but she was dressed in one of those kimonos with those extra bright patterns, so he guessed she was a girl from the brothel. What made him nervous was that she resembled Sakura somehow, even if her hair was a reddish color and her skin looked like she spent more time in the sun than elsewhere.

So he watched the scene, feeling Sakura's grip tightening in disgust.

"What exactly is going on here?" Her voice was low, maybe because of the spooky events.

The blonde couldn't answer. His vision was glued on the girl that was pulled through the street.

A man next to them turned around, watching the strange couple. "It's because there's a rumour going 'round here, miss. It's said that a mole from the Hidden Leaf 's around here, and that it could be every woman in town. We fear infiltration, so the guys that visit the brothel on daily basis take out evey woman one by one."

Sakura moved her head around. "Take.Out?" He pupils grew smaller.

"Well, yes, miss. They take them along and burn them alive, they hope that while burning, they spit their secret identity, but for now there wasn't any mole. You don't have the fear for your life, miss, they only take the woman from the brothel for now. And you don't look like a spy, in my opinion." The man grinned dirty, exposing his bad teeth and giving her some strange looks.

"That's..." Deidara turned around, looking like he was seriously pissed and ready to beat the man to a pulp, when he felt Sakura's hand on his cheek.

"Calm down." She said, in a soft voice. "It's not like it will stop these idiots from watching."

He sighed and almost choked on his tongue when someone pulled him with Sakura as a backpack to the side, behind a house.

"Naah." He turned around furiously, only to see a frightened Karu who was out of breath.

"You shouldn't be here, really." Karu said, catching her breath. "Everything is going wrong here, and I don't know how you can still stay safe. You should leave, better tomorrow than later."

"But why's that? What's the thing about a mole?" Sakura asked panically.

Karu shrugged. "Why is it normal that there's an Akatsuki hopping through town like it's the most usual thing, and nobody cares?" She looked at Deidara whose thoughts were somewhere else as it seemed. "But still, you need to leave, honey. It won't be long until they are going to be aggessive, and they will pick the people who look unusual first."

"Nothing they will do, un." He put Sakura back on the ground, who handed the hat back to him. "We should go back to the inn, or else you either get cold or they won't let us in anymore." And with a devastating look, he left Karu behind, pulling Sakura with him.

---

"That wasn't nice, you saw how afraid she was." Sakura shook her head while closing the door to her room. Until now she thought that Deidara was someone who would listen to such warnings, but the sudden retreat was something that confused her.

Suddenly he took her by her shoulders, looking at her firmly as if he wanted to tell her something serious.

"It's because it was in public, un." His grip was firm and almost hurt the girl. "You know, there were some people giving you looks and many who were suspicous - I don't want to push you into trouble with staying out there, lookin at thing like that."

He drew his hands away from her suddenly, as if he realized that his grip was too strong and it was hurting her. He felt lucky indeed, now that he could look at her and touch Sakura without feeling like a dirty bastard who tried to seduce a little girl, but still he knew he lacked control over his strength, and he regretted it every day.

She looked at him in a way that would melt ice, taking both his hands (which was funny looking, because his hands were sizes bigger than hers) and talking with a soft voice:

"You worry too much. You shouldn't tell me not to worry when all you do is just the same."

He stared at the small hands, noticing that she still wore that single, green armwarmer. It was so asymmetric that he felt the need to remove this stupid, knitted thing that destroyed the whole, beautiful image of the girl.

She let go of his hands, moving hers back to her chest and smiling.

"But..." He started "But I don't want to give you away again."

He heard a muffled snicker and saw how the kunoichi pressed her hand against her mouth, trying so smother the laugh that was building up in her throat.

"Now, what's so funny, un?" He ruffled her hair, as if she was a little girl. "I'm not trying to be an entertainer for you!"

Sakura choked her giggle, managing her hair again and poking Deidara in the stomach in a gentle way while he grinned pleasently and pulled her close. Actually he enjoyed the feeling of her soft form, more than he actually planned too, and less than a footstep away from a embarrassing situation.

And it quite bothered him that she had to wear those stupid, high-heeled sandals, which made him crush his jaw together accidently when he tried to get in a more comfortable position.

"You'll wreck me one day, un. And then I'll be a crippled old guy who tells little boys about being a shinobi." He felt if his jaw was alright with one hand, and imprisoning Sakura with the other arm around her waist.

"Who cares." She said, half yawning, half coughing in a weird way. "It's more likely that people will tell everyone about the crippled transvestite."

Deidara snorted, lifting her up with one arm and being pleased with the surprised face of Sakura who didn't expect him to be this strong, obviously. "Now who's superior in this game?"

"You, Sire. Now what's your plan?" Sakura pulled his hair in a playful fashion to force him to release her.

"Nothing really, but I think" He stopped for some seconds, thinkinh if he should set Sakura to the ground again. "I think I should go and look what this freakish Sasori is doing, un."

"Ah right. I don't know who you're talking about, but if it's your usual company, it can only be some mad scientist." She shook her head.

Deidara grinned and told himself thar 'Mad scientist' described the manic puppeteer quite well, even if it lacked the disgusting meaning. "Sure, now, I'll come again tomorrow evening, and I expect to find you asleep, un."

He was gone within seconds, and Sakura grabbed the books Karu had left her, trying to ignore the painful smell of burning flesh and moving away the thoughts about what would happen if she was found out.

---

When the sun was rising, Karu ran to the inn were Sakura was resting, rushing upstairs and throwing the light door open.

The girl had fallen asleep over her books, and Karu felt like throwing up suddenly, because the innocent kunoichi didn't know what was going to happen.

A sour feeling was crawling up her throat, forcing her to choke. It was fear, in it's purest form, and seeing Sakura didn't make it better.

The smell of the poor, burned woman last night still rested over the village, and the greasy air held a threatening tone in it.

Karu made some steps to reach Sakura, shaking her to wake up. She wanted to take her away, now, and as far away as she could, or at least she planned to do this evening.

"Wake up honey, it's serious!" She warched as Sakura slowly opened her eyes, tired green eyes.

She yawned, looking at Karu. "But it's merely morning, Karu.." She rubbed her eyes.

"Sorry honey, but you have to come with me, or you may be in big trouble when it's lunchtime."

Without thinking about it twice, Sakura moved up und looked at Karu. "Believe me, it's like that, and it's ab pity that your pet-Akatsuki isn't here. It would sure turn out funny."

She took the hand of the girl, leading her out of the room, far from the Inn.

---

Karu closed the door of her small house and looked around. "I just hope they don't come here too fast."

Sakura, yawning and tired as she was, settled herself on a cushioned chair. "What's going on here anyway?"

Karu closed the curtains. "They're going after every suspicious woman, and they wanted to take the prostitutes and foreigners first. I don't know, I bet it will be bloody and..." She turned around. "I bet it will be bloody. That's why I brought you here, my small home is so far away from everything - everyone knows you're now from here, and they would take on you first."

Sakura choked, the pictures of the woman who was pulled down the street conquered her mind. She didn't want to end up like this, not now. Actually she thought she could die old and happy, or at least something like this. "And what now?"

"If they come here" Karu pulled some Kunais out of her Kimono. "We'll fight. We're shinobi, Sakura."

Actually, Sakura didn't like the thought of a fight, hurting people was something she disliked with passion, at least she knew that. But thinking about the situation, she agreed with Karu. "And what if they are...too many?"

"Then" Karu said "then you'll slid your stomach open with a kunai."

"Suicide!" Sakura asked, with a fearful face. "But that's..."

"The only way to escape some horrible destiny, honey. If you don't end your life before they get you, you may be raped, tortured and killed in the end. If the people of this country hate something, then it's a spy, and you couldn't talk them out of it."

Sakura shivered . She wondered if time would go on slower than usual if she fears something.

---

Later that day, when it was late afternoon, Deidara was blindly hopping from roof to roof, hoping to reach the window of Sakura's room soon.

He hadn't found Sasori, which confused him greatly. His abilities were either fading away, or his hormones were doing a party so he coudn't even scout his partner.

Sighing, he touched the skin around his Hawk's Eye. The damn thing was aching like hell, and sometimes he regretted the transplantation of the artificial eye, but praised every god he knew that it came in handy so many times already.

Suddenly he felt the pain of a closed window. He had jumped against the closed window of Sakura's room, gliding downwards now like a snail, but getting himself together soon again.

He knocked against it, trying to wake Sakura, but when he looked inside, the room was empty, a mess and the door open.

_Look _he heard the Inner Deidara hissing _look what's going on in the streets, what's that?_

He made his way to the roof, listening to his Inner Self, but regretting it the next moment.

There were lots of dead women and girls, some leaning against the walls of buildings, others were still in a defending position, their arms crossed in front of their chest, some even lost their heads.

And somewhere, there was wild screaming, making the bloody scene even spookier.

_So where do you want to search first? Either she's dead or she ran away from that._

"I don't know, why do you ask me, un?" Deidara pulled his hair and realized that he didn't knew what he should do. There was this brutal feeling building up in his chest, making his blood boil.

And he knew he couldn't go against it.

---

It was the same time when Karu dodged the attack of some Rain shinobi and stabbed his side with a kunai. She was out of breath, years of being occupied in a dirty brothel had left their tracks on her condition, and she could barely fight the intruder who broke into her house. She had taken some serious hits already, but still told Sakura not to do anything.

At least she tried. The pink haired kunoichi was paralyzed with fear, staring at the scene and feeling some warm tears running down her cheeks. She didn't know what to do, all she remembered was healing wounds, and not killing people.

She suddenly woke from her thoughts when she heard a disgusting sound, like when you chop up meat.

Karu's head was rolling in front of her feet, looking at her in a judging way.

Sakura whimpered when the shinobi came towards her, throwing the small, Katana-like sword on the ground which was drenched with Karu's blood.

"Now that your friend is dead" he began to speak in a way Sakura didn't like - it was like he was drooling over a piece of meat "you're the last one left here, aren't you?"

Sakura forced herself to choke down the tears if desperation. Why didn't she force Deidara to stay with her after Karu had warned her? Then her friend wouldn't be dead now, looking at her from the dead eyes of the head to her feet.

She just tried to freeze her emotions when the disgustingly dirty guy looked at her closely. She _was_ a piece of meat.

He made a clicking sound with his tongue before he placed his hand in the front cut of her Medic Aprondress, ripping it open like a maniac and staring at his vicitm.

Now it was when the instincts and surpressed memories of the kunoichi melted themselves with the things she learned from Karu. Sakura began to do handseals, catching the surprised look of the drooling guy when a hateful look hit him, combined with a deadly aura.

Sakura placed her hands quickly on the chest of the man.

Within a second, his heart stopped, and he sank to the ground, bathing in Karu's blood.

Sakura sank to her knees, breathing hard and sweating from her sudden outburst.

She looked into the eyes of the head next to her, smiling sadly, before closing the eyes of her friend.

She already wanted to stand up, looking around if the situation outside had relaxed, but suddenly, a heat wave hit her, and the sound of a huge explosion filled the air.

------

**Now, this chapter morphs half a day into five minutes -sweats- but I can't just go on and write this stuff too detailed. **

**Well...have fun imagining Sakura with a ripped open Apron-Dress. XD**

**(Since my computer crushes when I do the preview, I don't know if this chaper is too long or too short.)**


	11. Sunny Stars

The air in the old, abadoned barn was thick and warm, and smelled from the liquid that injuries produce when the body tries to heal them.

Even if the sun was shining outside, none of the people who were inside would have noticed.

Sakura had been working for many hours without sleep now, and her body, with the burned arms, was crying for a break, but she didn't move away from her patient stubbornly.

She didn't realize how long she was working already, she just knew that it was far too long, and that she already couldn't tell if she was asleep or awake.

In a corner of the barn, a motionless figure was watching her, wrapped in a cloudy Cloak. His eyes were wandering between the unconscious figure and the medic, trying to analyze the situation further before standing up and exchanging some words with Sakura. Without hesitation, she moved out of the barn, giving sunshine a chance to flood the room.

When he was sure she was gone, he kneeled down in front of the patient, shaking him.

"Wake up now. You should be strong enough." He said in a cold manner.

The man lifted up his hand, moving his sweaty hair out of his face.

He opened his eyes slowly, inspecting the red haired guy who had ripped him out of his dreams.

"Danna..." he said. "It was a dream, wasn't it, un?" Deidara looked around, feeling quite bad after all. "What's going on?"

Sasori shook his head, looking at the blonde who was lying in front of him.

"I should ask you." He answered with his chilly, cold voice. "I was searching for you, then I heard an explosion and found you in a completely smashed, burning town. There was a doctor treating you, maybe even a medical ninja."

"Explo- I didn't do anything!" Deidara tried to move himself up, but grabbing his side and laughing in an embarrassed way. "Something I had with me must have detonated by itself. I feel like a Genin again..."

Sasori shrugged without a sign of emotion on his face. "Well then, I brought you and the medic here...it's an unwritten rule that you don't talk against a doctor."

"You know you should have killed him." Deidara let his head sink back on his uncomfortable bed-like place. Actually it was only two dirty old blankets.

"It's not always the right solution." Sasori moved himself up. "If I would have killed her right away, you would be dead now, and I would be in trouble."

"How long have I slept?" Deidara suddenly asked. He rubbed his head.

"Fifteen, maybe Sixteen hours. You're lucky, you got help quickly. You whole right body half was burned." Sasori said it like it was the most usual thing in the world. "Most of it is fixed now. You should be well again soon."

Deidara looked down on him. He hadn't noticed until now that most of his clothing was gone, mainly because the heat of this place was irritating his body.

He sighed when he noticed that even his hair was only hanging down from his head like it hadn't been washed for days.

"And when do I get payed for this show, un?" He muttered, staring at the ceiling. There were some birds nesting somwhere inside of the construction of the roof, he was able to hear the chirping of the young ones while they called for their parents for food.

He smiled sadly. The things that happened at the town with the name he forgot were still stuck in his head, and he tried not to think about Sakura.

"Well." Sasori walked out of the barn, only to come back with some old cup with something in it. "I don't question a doctor, and she told me to let you drink this if you wake up while she's asleep."

"It's not like you to let a woman boss you around, danna, un." Deidara grinned and grabbed the cup, since he was thirsty like hell. Only the smell made him make a disturbed face. "But holy crap! What the hell is this!"

"Tea. She made it out of some herbs. Don't ask me how it tastes like, I don't care about such things." Sasori watched with a unmoved expression when Deidara downed the strange, green tea. If he felt something now, then the urge to ask why Deidara was hanging out in a strange place like the Country of Rain.

"It's horrible, un." Deidara yawned. "So you want to tell me that you took me here and that you let a doctor who I don't know undress me like a child."

"If you say it like this" Sasori underlined his speech with a mild smile "you would look nice sitting on one of my shelves."

Suddenly Deidara pulled his blanket over his face and tried to hide from his spooky partner.

---

He didn't notice that he fell asleep shortly after he hid in fear from his strange partner. Now Deidara was lying around with his eyes closed when he heard footsteps next to him, and when he slowly opened his eyes, he saw two smooth-looking legs next to him.

"Hm.." He yawned. "Danna, you have beautyful legs..un.." He rubbed his eyes slowly, still looking at the curvy legs, slowly realizing that those couldn't be Sasori's wooden legs.

"He went off to get some clothes for you" A soft voice whispered. "It's deep night, you should sleep."

But instead of getting tired from the melodic voice, Deidara's eyes widened as the figure with the smooth voice sat down next to him. Now he WAS dreaming, wasn't he?

"When...why?" tried to lift himself up, trying to look into the face of the ghost that was sitting there, next to him. "But you are dead!"

She helped him to move on his back, seeing straight into Sakura's face. "I'm fine."

Deidara blinked. "So it's...nice to be dead, un? Tell me about the place you go when you die."

Sakura smiled. "I'm alive, and you should be asleep. Even if your friend told me not to be too nice with you because you caused him much trouble."

Deidara shook his head. He moved himself up on his elbows, looking at Sakura.

He hair was moved into a careless knot in her neck, and her eyes were surrounded by shadows. But the most strange part was her bandaged chest, while her dress was ripped open to her navel. He arms were in bandages too, up to her elbows.

"Don't tell me you are hurt but still caring for me" he moved up into a sitting position and placed a hand on the back of her neck. "how can you be such a good person?"

"It's not that hard, it's something you feel, and even if you don't it doesn't mean that you are not a good person. There are just...differen points of view."

"You're philosophic, un." He just pulled her into an embrace. "But I thought you were dead, and I didn't even shed a tear. It's frustrating."

"Don't say it like that." She moved herself away a little, looking firmly into his honey-yellow eyes. "It just shows you that you can go on."

He stared into the green eyes, trying to find an answer. Instead he found the eyes of a girl who was hiding something, and not telling what it is until she forgets it.

But Deidara wasn't really the who wanted to wait for answers, if he wants to know something, he bothers you until you tell him.

So he took Sakura's face into his hands and pulled it towards his, suddenly kissing her with a passion unknown to him.

Being surprised, Sakura couldn't go against the forceful sign of love and placed her hands on the shoulders while choking down some tears.

"And now you should tell me what happened when I made the town go boom, un." He grinned after they finally managed to stop before they would end up being smothered, dryed up or dying from hunger.

"What should have happened?" She spoke in a soft, quiet voice.

"You know, you chest, and your arms. I'm not stupid or blind. At least not yet." He threw a part of his hair back to his back.

"Alright, but after I told you, I can tell you something nice." She smiled, melting his heart and giving him the feeling to be an idiot.

"Do...so, and if somebody did something to you, I shall rip that sucker in two parts, un." He stammered, making her laugh.

"No worry. While the was this thing going on there, I was at Karu's house, and well, some guy killed her, and wanted to rape me, but he couldn't do more than to rip my dress."

"Eh...and what happened to him?" Deidara pulled the blanket up.

"I made his heart stop." She said cooly, and for a second, it was like she was satisfied with something like that. A scary expression in her eyes. "Well, you know you made the whole town a big, burning grave? I burned my arms when I was getting out of the building. The heat wave knocked me out for some minutes. And when I found you, you were half dead. I began to rebuild you piece by piece."

"So, you are Sasori's doctor...un." He began to chuckle as he imagined Sasori being bossed around by Sakura, picking herbs and fetching water. "But wait."

"No, I don't wait. Besinde making you okay again, I also fixed the connections of the nerves to your mechanic eye. The whole construction of the nerves was completely mushed up, somebody shout shoot the one who did this bad work." Sakura crossed her arms in a rather angry way. "If they had stayed like this some more years, you wouldn't be able to use them at all anymore, so I sorted them in the right way again."

Deidara moved his hand to his Hawk's Eye. He hadn't noticed that the strange pain he had was gone when he woke up before.

"And I reconstructed the skin of your body also, there shouldn't even be a scar left. I'll check what's left tomorrow."

"But then you...you" He pointed his finger at her in a shocked fashion "Butthenyousawmenaked!"

"What's the matter with that?" She looked at him curiously, but slighlty amused by his reddened face and the unbelievable embarressed expression.

"Would you like it if I rip the clothes from your body, un?" He used his arms wildly to illustrate his saying.

"No, but you were dancing with death and I don't really care about that...beside, I left you your shoes."

She shrugged.

"Stop making fun of me, un!" He pulled his hair.

"Why does it bother you so much?" She leaned her head on his shoulder.

He let his head hang, sighing. "It's because you're a woman maybe?"

"Actually I'm your doctor, so that gives me the right to do everything I need to do." She closed her eyes. "It's so hard to argue with you."

"I know, un." Deidara poked her nose. "If you want to sleep, you can come in."

"No." She yawned. "You're naked, I'm not going to crawl under your blanket as long as you are."

"Didn't you just say you're a doctor? Look, it's neccessary! I'm dying, un!" He waved his arms helplessly as Sakura stood up.

"That's a nice try..." She winked and made her way out of the barn. "You go to sleep now too, so I can work on you tomorrow without you looking like a corpse."

"You are sleeping outside, un?" he yelled after her.

She smiled, and nodded. "I'm watching the sky there.."

---

**My. I'm cheap, I know, but, I wanted to get on, and put Sasori in it because someone I know loves that guy to death xD**

**Sadly, he won't stay too long - but he won't die. xD**

**Well, what can I say?**

**OMG! THERE WAS PORN IN IT! xDD**


	12. Fooled

Deidara woke up when the heat in the barn became unbearable. He shook his head, noticing that his hair was greasy and sweaty, and somehow glued to his shoulders. He sighed and looked around. There wasn't a trace of Sakura or even Sasori, which made him quite jealous. The two of them got along too well, even if Sasori was just a stupid puppet who didn't even feel sorry for him.

He felt uncomfortable. He was sitting around naked and felt the urge to wash his hair. Really uncomfortable.

His thought were violently interrupted when the doors of the barn swooshed open, and a not-so-fresh-looking Sakura hopped in, kneeling down in front of him.

"How are we today?" she asked in a abnormal cheerful tone.

"Bad." Deidara replied. "I'm boiling here, un." He made a sour face and made Sakura laugh. Then she eyed him up and down, with a knowing face.

"There's a stream in the woods, I guess you would like to take a bath there." But she stopped him from getting up. "Wait, before you run around, I'd like to check on your legs. So hold still, will you?"

She roughly pulled one of his legs on her lap, and without much efford, Deidara noticed that she must have been pushed to her limits with the healing of his injuries. She was almost completely out of chakra and not able to do much anyway. It pained him to in a strange way to see that he had drained her reserves like this, only because he couldn't keep his cool again and went on a rampage.

"Listen, you don't have to-" he was cut off by Sakura.

"This nailpolish looks horrible." she said, worn-out. "It's cracked, you should redo it."

"I know it's horrible, but I have to wear it, un." he answered, puzzled. "You don't have to check on me if you're not okay yourself, un."

She shook her head, shoving his leg away as roughly as she took it.

"How do you know?" she settled herself on the ground, feeling stupid as Deidara grinned at her like a child in front of a candyshop.

"First, you were walking as if you were a baby learning to walk, second are your uncontroled, rough movements" he grabbed her shoulders and pulled her into a tight embrace "and third, your presence feels as dry as a desert, un."

Sakura tried not to think about the last part, she tried hard to keep her eyes open. Even after a night with unusual good sleep, she felt tired, heavy and unable to move anymore.

"Don't worry, un." He watched her attempts to stay awake. "That's pretty normal if you run out of chakra."

She didn't worry to fall asleep anymore after a few minutes. The fact that Deidara's chest wasn't soft and comfy at all did it's part.

While Sakura tried to solve the puzzle how someone who's nota big pile of muscles could feel that firm and be as strong as she had seen him be, Deidara occupied himself with her hair, loosening the knot and getting himself frustrated with the thought that she raped her lovely, pink hair like that.

He watched the groggy Sakura while having one hand buried in her hair and the other one placed on her waist.

He was looking quite satisfied.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" He asked while moving his hand out of the silky, pink mane to her cheek.

"What?" Sakura whispered and looked up with one eye. She didn't get what was going on at all, her mind was hovering between being awake and being asleep.

"You hair, un. It's lovely." He moved his hand over her cheek, realizing that her skin felt like a peach. "Hey, now, when do I get to take my bath?"

"As soon as Sasori is back..." She answered with a muffled voice. Sakura had moved her arms around his upper body for some more fast support, being perfectly aware that he couldn't lean onto anything with his back, which would make her stay awake a little long, as an extra to her uncomfortable meat-pillow.

"Your heart is hammering"she said without thinking much about it. "I've never heard of a twenty-year old that died of an heart attack."

Poor Sakura didn't know that her innocent little comment made his heart race even more.

_She's asking for a stupid response, so give her one!_

"But you're an expert in making my heart race, un." He moved her, much to her discomfort, up a little and gave her a light kiss, tasting something bitter, yet very interesting on her lips.

He guessed that it were herbs, for some reason. She wasn't able to brush her teeth here, so maye she chewed those nasty plants.

Or whatever.

What was this thing she told him about herbs that prevent pregnancy? The thought about her thinking this far already made his cheeks go brightly red and he felt heat running up to his face, so he quickly buried his face in her hair to avoid the chance of her seeing his embarresssment.

Not only was he embarressed to have greasy hair and the smell of old sweat over his body, he also was thinking things that seemed obscene to him before. At least he thought those things were obscene.

He was close to imagining her naked, and he hadn't done that since the day he found her. He still blames her exuberant breasts for it - if someone would ask how he would describe them, he would say "a handful. Kisame's hand.".

Deidara was wondering, actually. He never was attracted to women at all, and it was said that most shinobi lose their interest in the opposite gender quickly and that's why there are not many marriages between shinobi. But recently he noticed how nice it was to be with the kunoichi, and how nice it felt to be close to her.

'Maybe' he thought 'it's a matter of time and place.'

It was irritating how nice everything was suddenly.

"You're funny..." Sakura whispered sleepily "Don't you like my face?"

He chuckled and began to kiss her neck, waking her up slowly.

He actually just followed his instincts on what he should do now, and the next best thing to do was giving her sone soft kisses on her neck and using the blessing of the moment (and the paralyzed Sakura) to pull her even closer, and withing seconds, evey doubt about things obscene were forgotten.

Sakura giggled and struggled a little.

"Now, what's that? Do you want something? I don't think this place is any romantic."

"Easy, my body says 'I want some', and my brain says 'Great idea, dude' and then it's automatic and I can't go against it anymore, un." He chuckled before working his way down to her collar-bone.

It didn't take him too long to notive that she couldn't breath well with the bandages she wore as a replacement for the upper part of her apron-dress. It was a bad solution for her clothing-problem.

But it wasn't a hurdal for Deidara, who watched her chest falling and rising.

Just as he wanted to lift his hand and remove the bandages, a polite cough interrupted his actions.

"Pardon me that I have to interrupt you" Sasori declared cooly "but I doubt you would like to run around naked."

And with that, Sasori threw a bundled bunch of Akatsuki clothes over to his partner, who, with a angry face, gave him a deadly glare while catching the bundle.

Sakura in the meanwhile got up, shook her head and got out with the word: "Men, they always ruin the moments."

Sasori wasn't embarressed or uncomfortable at all, he watched as Deidara got dressed and handed him his headprotector.

"Remember me to feed the next campfire with you, danna, un." he growled.

His partned shook his head. "Don't try to make me feel guilty, it won't work."

So Sasori made his way out, followed by Deidara who carried his new cloak, his hat and headprotector over his left arm. He was amazed how well his legs were working. It was like he never had been injured. It was almost funny that he was completely intact.

Only the sunlight blinded him first, due to his long stay in the darker barn that was looking really old and abadoned from the outside.

He took a good look around.

"Where in the world are we, un?" he asked, after he thought a moment, and after spotting Sakura picking some plants at the forest's edge. He still cursed Sasori, who ruined the first really private moment he had with a woman.

"Since when do you know where you are." Sasori said with a cold look. "We're not far from the border to the Fire Country, but still in the Rain Country. Interesting enough, this seems to be a restricted area, I haven't sensed anyone close here. Also no ANBU from Konoha. They seem to think their medic is dead."

Deidara nearly choked on thin air before shaking Sasori violently.

"Howdoesitcomethatyouknowwhosheisyoufoulpieceofwood!"

"Mind to stop that?" Sasori moved Deidara's hands from his shoulders. "In order to get my help, I just wanted her to tell me while she cared that much about you.

And you know, I'm not stupid. My ears are open, and when a medic with such an appearance disappears from Konoha, it quickly makes it's round."

Deidara's jaw had dropped open, and he stared his partner down while he reached out for a smaller bundle which he handed Sakura who had moved closed while the two of them had his little discussion.

"I got you a new dress. I think it's the same style you wore before, although I don't know." He also dropped an apple on the bundle Sakura held now. "You have to eat something."

Sakura nodded politely.

While Deidara followed Sasori, he gave Sakura a last look over his shoulder.

"You should overcome your lovesickness." Sasori said in a dry manner, sitting on a treestump next to the stream where Deidara was happily washing the signs of the last days from his body and removing the greasy feeling from his hair.

"What, un?" He looked over to Sasori, wringing his hair.

"I'm not too fond of this lovering-thing." Sasori stated. "but if you have your head in the atmosphere because of the kunoichi, you'll get ripped into pieces sooner or later. And I'll be blamed then."

He gave the last part a special sound, which angered Deidara slightly. Unmoved, Sasori crossed his arms, making them squeak.

"And for your sake" he went on "What kind of life can you give her?"

Deidara gave him a questioning look while dressing. "...what do you mean, un?"

"I don't think you are willing to give her a life like yours, are you? I expected you to think about such things, because you got the brains and are a splendid strategist." The way Sasori spoke about these matters felt like a cold breeze. "But if you want to change your mind...she's make a great piece sitting on one of my shelves, dressed in a nice, pink lace dress."

Deidara was boiling with rage now, but moving his anger into a dark corner of his mind, where his Inner Deidara was beating it up with delight.

"Danna, you are a rotten bastard." Deidara muttered while stomping away into the woods.

**---**

**So...I'm a bitch, I know. xD**

**I know it's not nice to pretend that there's something going on and breaking every illusion then, but I had to xD**

**This chapter is dedicated to Siy, who always wants me to write a lemon xD**

**And I'm sorry if I can't update so fast, my own computer committed suicide, and I'm writing on my mother's now.**

**So, I hope you had fun :3**

**Next time, our motto is: "Deidara has issues" :3**


	13. Candy of Jealousy

Deidara arrived flug over Sasori's shoulder, and Sakura could have sworn that she was able for at least one second to see stars dancing around his head. She gave a pitiful smile before throwing a questioning look at Sasori, who threw Deidara into the grass, not caring if his partner was feeling it or not.

"He hugged a tree while he didn't pay attention to where he was walking." He explained dryly before sitting down and crossing his arms, with his usual frozen features.

Sakura tried to ignore the uncomfortable presence of the man with the wooden body and the child-like face, pumping the last bit of chakra she was able to use into her hands and healing her arms from the now wet burns, cursing herself that she didn't so it earlier.

Sasori watched her affords, snickering silently about the fact that he scared her like a little kid. He thought someone that could tame Deidara and put this guy on a leash would be rather dominant, but he just saw a little, scared girl who was busy ignoring him, but not succeeding. It was amusing how her hands were shaking. Usually, he wouldn't get bossed around by woman like that girl did, but for the sake of saving his pride (and his ass), he bowed to his fate for the moment, since she was a reliable medical shinobi who stitched Deidara together again piece by piece with a speed that would make anyone jealous.

He thought it came in handy that he could let her think for awhile. The only thing that conecerned the ex-Suna shinobi was how deeply his partner had fallen for the girl.

He didn't understand those feelings anymore, but he knew that it could mean trouble if he wasn't able to find a solution soon. Deidara couldn't, for his thoughts were filled with puffy pink clouds, filled with hormones that blocked the way to the left side of his brain.

Sakura gave the new skin on her arms a proud look, touched it and began to laugh then. The clear blue sky and the sunshine pushed her good mood to a maximum, even if she was tired and even if she had to look at the scary puppet-man and a groggy, unconscious Deidara, who were no nice sights now.

She poked the blonde, in the hope he would wake up and so something.

Again.

And again.

No reaction.

"Hell, did you smash his head on a tree or something?" She suddenly called out, making Sasori wonder if she knew that he knocked Deidara out for his own sake.

"I don't think so." He let his chin sink onto his chest again, turning his gaze away from Sakura who was violently shaking Deidara now. "He has thick head, he'll get through it."

"That's not what I meant!" She replied, letting Deidara fall and forgetting about the help that Sasori had offered her while putting Deidara together again. "No one gets like that when he walks into a tree!"

Sasori shrugged. "I don't know - he's always doing some nonsense. He's something like a big child."

He moved his lifelifess eyes towards her. "And you should be more grateful for my help, woman. I hate being bossed around by little girls, and it might end bad for you."

Sakura choked and gave him a pissed look when suddenly Deidara shot up from his horizontal position.

"You are such a..." he pointed at Sasori, screaming and with a rather comical, mad expression. "Why do I team up with you anyway!"

"Because you were ordered so." Sasori didn't even twitch. "And because I'm the one with knowledge about art."

Deidara pushed back his damp hair, removing some grass. "You missed your job, danna, you should be working in a house for corpse preparation."

"And you shouldn't play in the mud too often. Behave more like an adult." Sasori pushed himself up, preparing to leave. "I'll have to do something. An idea."

"And what kind of idea, un?"

"You'll see."

"And now?" Sakura asked while brushing Deidara's hair with a brush he found in the inner pocket of his cloak.

He shrugged, looking up at the sky. "We'll wait for danna to come back, sometimes his ideas hold at least little value, un."

"For me it looked like you two like each other." She began to pull parts of his hair up, making him whimper a little.

"Not really. He's sick-minded and mad. I'd like to feed him to a random oven, un." He took a look around, noticing how the sun had moved and shook his head. "And this guy sure takes his time."

Sakura laughed and moved herself up, throwing her hair back. She wondered why she was wearing it long anyway, it was always in her way, and she thought it was stupid to push it back behind her ear every now and then.

Looking a a strand of her bangs, she began to think about how it would be to cut it short.

"Say," she said, actually talking to noone special. "how would my hair look if I would cut it short?"

Deidara gave her a curious look while she was talking to thin air. "How short, un?"

Sakura realized that she was talking her thoughts out loud and blinked a few times. "Shoulder or shorter. It's always falling into the way, and I don't know what I should do."

"Why don't you pull it into a ponytail then, un?" He pulled her down in front of him and grabbed her hair in a gentle way, pulling it back into her neck. Staring, he began to think. "But you would sure look cute with shorter hair, un."

Sakura shrugged and gave him a wide grin. "I'm not talking about looks, you know."

"I know. But I am talking about looks, I have to look at you, even if you mess your hair up, un." He ruffled her hair into a mess and laughed a short, bitter laugh. "Or at least I would like to."

"What do you mean?" She asked with a questioning look in her eyes.

Deidara sent a curse to the guy who was responsible for the first of her ancestors that had such a beautiful face, or at least the type of face which melted his heart like a piece of butter.

It was like he realized that he was wax in her hands, and he was a little relieved that she didn't take advantage of this fact.

"Nothing. You're looking tired, un." He pinched her nose and pulled her up on it. "How about getting some sleep, I can wait for that guy on my own without getting eaten by wolves."

"If you say so." Sakura said with a nasal voice. "I wanted to sleep, but your primitive mind took over and shouted 'SEX!' so loud that it kept me awake."

He gave her a sheepish look and pulled her down again. "You should lean on my back anyway, un. If you go inside this wooden skeleton of a barn, you'll get cooked, Sakura-chan."

"What's with this -chan suddenly?" She made herself comfortable after tapping behind Deidara. "Do your missing teenage years come through?"

He snickered. "You're a girl, un."

"Hey...smart." She poked him gently into the side. "Unbelievable...how did you find out?"

"Instinct." He answered shortly, looking around for his partner. He wanted to add something though, but the kunoichi was already asleep, making those cute sounds that a guy wouldn't dare to call snoring.

Still Deidara asked himself how this relationship would end. He didn't know what he should do with Sakura when he has do show up at their headquarters again. He wouldn't like to pull her into the organisation, knowing her soft nature. If she was regaining her memory slowly, then her love for her village would come back sooner or later, and maybe other things he wouldn't like to know.

He was jealous, but he would never have admitted it. What if there was somebody else who had a place in this girl's heart, and who would take her away one day?

Maybe he should just take her back and drop her somewhere in the Fire Country, and forget about it. If there are some shinobi from Konohagakure, they would find her, and since she had amnesia, they would take her back to her village.

And where in the world was this goddamn Sasori?

He was forcefully pulled out of his thoughts when Sakura was moving roughly, smashing her elbow into his back, the place where his kidneys are and almost breaking his spine.

"Sasuke!" She shrieked. "Why don't you come back!"

Deidara moved around so sudden that Sakura fell on her back, but strangely didn't notice. She had cramps and was twitching, her eyes were rolled back in a nasty fashion. It's not neccessary to say that Deidara felt a little helpless, but was also curious what she was talking about. Maybe she was hallucinating from her lack of sleep or whatever, but as long as he didn't know what to do, he would just wait, even if it pained him.

Her breathing was heavy, and there were tears running from her eyes like waterfalls, and it seemed like there was no end to it.

"Sasuke! Sasuke!" Was the only thing she was able to yell. "Don't leave me! If you do I...will scream and.."

At this moment, Deidara planned to rip this Sasuke's head off if he ever met him - just because.

He didn't know who he was and why Sakura knew him, but he seemed to have a special place in her heart, and that he was a barricade to something that would allow her to completely open up.

Even if she didn't remember him, he was in the way.

He began to shake Sakura violently to wake her up, with force, if he had to. He didn't want to hear more about Sasuke, whoever it was.

**----**

**Yeeesh, I know, it's short again. Hell, my chapters are getting shorter and shorter...I'm ashamed.. x3"**

**Well, I'm trying to come to an end slowly, and I can promise you that it will at least involve Sasuke. Yes, read right...but I won't tell more.**

**And sorry, my own computer is still not running, otherwise I could write MUCH more...-swetdrops-**


	14. White Tiger

Sakura snapped out of her hallucinations quickly, but whimpered suddenly.

"Stop that...it hurts..." She tried to move herself out of Deidara's grip, who noticed a little embarressed that he was holding her slender limbs a little too fast. When people get jealous, they mostly could slap themselves after their outbursts, and Deidara was not that different. His eyes were looking away from the kunoichi who was confused why he was grabbing her like this.

He couldn't stand looking into her eyes now, just because he didn't know what exactly was going on. He moved his chin onto his knees, burying himself in the clouded cloak. "Sorry. You had a bad dream, un."

Sakura blinked and shook her head. She didn't want to dig into this any further, so she would force him to talk about it by himself.

Deidara in the meanwhile tryed to think about what kind of connection her babbling had to her past, when it was striking him like thunder that Sasuke must have been the Uchiha who left the village, and that she was begging him to come back when he left.

Other than that it was years ago already, he realized that she must have had some kind of crush on this guy.

Secretly, he wondered if the younger Uchiha had ugly folds in his face like Itachi had, even if he was still young. Deidara was quite happy that he didn't look like him in some way, and that he would look young for a long time, just like his mother.

"I was dreaming about this boy, he had a fan on his shirt and a black hair. And he was walking away, I was begging him to come back, but he just walked on. I felt somehow helpless then. I don't know his name anymore, but I was like...thirteen or twelve then. And my hair was cut short." She grabbed a handful of her hair. "And suddenly it felt like it's wrong to wear in long again, as if I would run after something that's not true and doesn't exist anymore."

Deidara listened to what she was talking about, even if he couldn't put it into the puzzle which he had named 'Sakura'.

"And you know...I was called Haruno Sakura there..." She leaned against his back, waiting for a reaction.

"You screamed." He said dryly. "You were talking about Sasuke Uchiha, un." He took her hand from the behind. "I don't want you to be taken away by him when he shows up one day."

Sakura wondered what he meant, but couldn't extract the sense out if it. She just felt how he was fighting with many emotions that had gathered inside of him. And she felt that his hand was cold, even if it was warm and he was wearing a thick cloak.

"I don't even remember him." She said, making herself comfortable. Unlike this body of this guy, the cloak was soft and pretty comfortable to lie or lean on. "So why do you worry?"

"He remembers you for sure." He clenched his teeth. "And if he likes you, he won't like that somebody like me is..with you all the time, un."

Sakura sighed. She was tired, and being tired and being concerned and worried together creates stress.

"But I like you the most." She moved around, hugging him from behind. "And I don't that I would like him, he made such a cold, uninteresed impression."

Deidara coughed. He still struggled with hunger, he noticed, but shooed away this thought. He was a little more surprised that she wasn't too comfortable with the looks of the Uchiha. Usually girls would end out being drooling bitches when they spot them, and sometimes he cursed Itachi for having such an effect on women. Mainly because his bloodline didn't scare them.

---

When Sasori was coming back this night, Sakura was asleep, with Deidara, who looked a little unhappy about his situation, caught up in her grip from the behind.

His mood suddenly changed when he saw that his partner brought a bundle with him.

"What's that, un?" He whispered, pointing at the bundle with some trouble. "A bunch of corpses to clean out?"

Sasori didn't react to this provocation, like always. He set down the bundle, revealing a bunch of fruit.

"I have to feed you both well. That's all." He sat down, and noticed that some random part of his body was squeaking.

"And why do you bring fruit then, un?" Deidara managed to get hold of a peach without making Sakura slide from his back. He wondered how she could use that much pressure on his stomach with her arms without being awake.

"Because I was told to." Sasori pointed at Sakura. "I have resolution."

He reached for one inner pocket of his cloak, pulling out a shabby piece of pink paper, on which was a short message in a untidy manner of writing. Deidara's facial expression changed into fear when he read who had written the short letter.

"That's not true, un?" He choked. "I feel bad reading this, danna!"

Sasori stuffed the paper into his pocked again, shrugging unemotionally. "You wanted a resolution, now you got it. Live with it or search for an alternative yourself."

The blonde man sighed and massaged his temples. The resolution Sasori had found wasn't quite pleasent, but the best one he could think of. Maybe this kind of company would so Sakura a little good after the stay in the town that's not a town anymore.

Too bad.

"So, when, un?" He peeled Sakura off himself, without waking her up. "I don't believe that we have much time to decide, don't we, un?"

"Waterfall it is this time." The puppeteer said. "It's moving around, you know."

"I'm not stupid, un." He took Sakura piggyback. "I just hate being stuck between The countries of Earth and Fire."

"Learn to live with it." Sasori took the bundle of fruit again. "I thought you were hungry? You're far to nervous. The owner of the Ring of the White Tiger isn't as dangerous as always portrayed."

**---**

**Yes, 'tis short...but it's just a bridge that's leading towards the second part of this story.**

**You know what's totally stupid? The world maps at the wikipedia and on narutofever don't match. When I looked up today where the border to the Fire Country goes, I was like "OMGWTFBBQ...it doesn't even touch Rain! I totally messed up my story!"...but then I was convinced that the Wiki-map is wrong. I'm using the one from narutofever from now on...**

**Well, I shall see you next chapter..harhar.**


	15. Sombre?

"Well, yes, that's what I wrote." The woman who hat taken residence in a forlorn house in the middle of a medium village said, as Sasori showed her the little, pink paper. "So give her to me and go away already."

"You're always like that." Sasori said motionless, nodding over to Deidara, who had slight problem with his pink-haired luggage. "Talk to Deidara for that matter - I don't know if he will let go of her willingly."

The blue-haired woman shrugged and picked up a little stone, flinging it at Deidara, who got hit by it on the head, not looking to happy about it. "Move over here, boy." She exclaimed, waving both of them in.

"What a tight sleep that girl has." The blue haired said, after she noticed that Sakura was still asleep, and still being carried piggy-back by Deidara. "So, I told you if you really don't find a place for her, you leave her here, so I get my assistent who helps me moving around. Sasori said she's a talented medic, isn't she? Anyway, I will take her as my underling, therefore I will be responsible for her. I will integrate her as something like..." she scratched her head looking to the ceiling. "..a half-member. So she won't wear a ring. They're all take anyway, but as my underling, I'll push it through that she at least gets a uniform. And now give her to me and go do your business, boys."

"Hey, oneesan, un!" Deidara stopped her before she moved Sakura off his back. "What do you want to do with her? If she's not a full member then, is she at least safe?"

"Why do you ask?" The bluehaired shrugged. "I know you guys are no gentlemen, but I'm still alive too, and I'll make sure nobody's goin' to get ideas. I think I've lived long enough to know how to do stuff."

Deidara sighed, setting Sakura down on a old, dusty armchair. "But tell me somethin, un." he coughed after breathing in some dust. "What the hell is this house about?"

"Oh well, you have to stick your nose into everything you see, don't you?" She sighed.

Deidara rolled his eyes, pointing at a obviously bored Sasori. "He's boring, and I don't get to know enough stuff already, un."

The woman sighed, removing some dust from her cloudy cloak and readjusting her flower-hairpin.

"So, alright then. I'll open a pharmacy for cover. I hate hangin' out at headquarters with a bunch of barbaric men who are either regular blocks of ice or only think about gore. I am still very sensitive for such...things." She pointed at the door. "Would you like to leave now, before the streets get busy again? It's not good for me if there are suspicious people running around even before I open up this thing."

Sasori tugged Deidara out by his sleeve. "Oneesan is right. Let's go, or we'll be in trouble."

Deidara threw one last look at the still asleep Sakura, before he got tugged through two rooms to the outside again.

It somehow troubled him that he had to leave her with the mysterious kunoichi of Akatsuki.

--- 

When Sakura woke up late that day, she was staring into two light, grey eyes and a oval face, framed with straight, lightblue hair and a neat flower-hairpin.

A really neat one, it looked almost real.

"So, you're finally awake, love? I thought you may be sick because of your unbelievable tight sleep." The bluehaired said, smiling a little wry. "So, how do you feel?"

"Old." Sakura shook her head, settling herself up as soon as the bluehaired had moved herself into the second armchair. Sakura noticed the herbal scent that was coming from one of the other rooms, and also the shabby, dusty atmosphere of the room. "Where..."

"In a soon-to-be pharmacy in the second-biggest civilian town in the Land of Waterfall." The answer came promptly. "So, what's your name?"

"Eh.." Sakura was a little irritated by the directness of the unknown woman. "Sakura...and why..."

The women smiled yet again. "Because from now on you're my assistent - Deidara brought you here because he was concerned about where he should lave you - you should know, I'm from Akatsuki too, and I have the best connections to the big boss - you will surely be in soon, believe me." She streched her hand out, giving it to Sakura for a shake. "Welcome Sakura. You shall call me Oneesan, like everyone does, for it's not time yet that anyone shall know my real name."

Sakura gladly took the hand of Oneesan, eyeing her up and down, noticing her feminine way of clothing, the shirt with straps that left the shoulders free, and the kneelong pants. And strangely, sandals that vaguely resembled hers, and no goofy socks or other stuff. Her cloak hung over the armchair, bundled up into a little package held together by a scratched-through headprotector from the Hidden Cloud. Sakura had learned which sign belonged to which village from Deidara, who was slightly terrorfied by the fact that she had forgotten everything about being a shinobi.

"If I'm your assistant now, you're a medical ninja, Oneesan?" Sakura asked meekly, a bit scared of the woman.

"Sure thing. Sasori told me something about you having unbelievable talent, and that you had the ability to concentrate your chakra in your hands and feet to land strong blows - also that you chakra control seems to one of the best he had ever seen, and he's quite...old...you know." Oneesan sighed while saying 'old', but pulled herself together again. "Well, I thought I could use someone like you, maybe even teach you one or the other thing - there's no point in life where we can't learn something new, is there?"

Sakura was quite impressed by the way Oneesan was able to spit out waterfalls of words like that, without running out of breathe or topics. The woman really seemed like a big sister, with a strange aura around her.

"..and you want to make this a pharmacy? I smelled the herbs, you know.." Sakura looked around again. "I would really like to learn about ointments and herbal medicine...I only know few things from those books..."

The bluehaired women nodded. "I thought so. First I was afraid you would sulk over the fact that Deidara didn't say good-bye, but I guess he wouldn't had liked to wake you up after all - you looked to tired."

Sakura blinked before finding words again. "Why would you assume I would sulk over it?"

Oneesan began to laugh out loud. "I'm neither blind of uninformed. Actually, I would rather leave the first thing to Itachi if I could. First, Sasori told me that you're lovers, and then, he totally didn't want to let go of you when I sent those two away."

Sakura massaged her temples, sighing. "Alright. So, I think if he goes away without a word, it's not meant to be a bad thing, because he's just too kind."

"A little too kind, sometimes." Oneesan sighed. "He can't tell when he's going to go on a rampage in fight of when he's just running away. He's not the kind of guy that enjoys fighting that much, but if the fever gets him, he's a killing-machine that only stops when his thirst for battle is stilled. But other than that, he's a gentle mind, hopping around and being concerned about his little mud-pies as much as he is about the sparrows that are picking weed from the birdhouse he had set up when he still was living on his own."

Oneesan took a little break from her talking, obviously thinking. "We'll...we should plan some things then..first I'll get you some new clothes, you need some more shady colors and another apron, this one it cut like a dress and shows too much cleavage - I don't want those guys to get ideas. And then we'll so your hair, you shouldn't wear it down, it makes you look far too young, so you'll wear it in a bun on the back of your head, then you'll look a litle older. We'll leave the bangs like they are, they're nice that way. And you should try decent makeup, you won't get into battle too soon, so you can be a little concerned about your appearance. We'll do regular medical jobs here, not only mixing teas and doing pills. It's good to look nice.

The you shouldn't wonder if sometimes a ugly, big, blue guy shows up here, together with a smaller one that's running against walls sometimes. Those are Hoshigaki Kisame and Uchiha Itachi - Itachi is gettin' blind slowly, his Sharingan gives me a headache. I don't know how to solve it yet. And the big sharkguy is always whining about that Itachi sometimes mistakes him for an enemy and that his attacks so damn hurt...just ignore him then."

Sakura nodded. Something about this woman was making her feel quite good, she didn't know if it was her being the talkative type or the fact that something felt wrong about her, and that something has to be different somehow, but she couldn't make out what it was.

"Oneesan?" she asked then "I thought Akatsuki was an organisation for criminals..why are you helping people then?"

Oneesan didn't answer promptly. Instead, she stood up, and walked into a small room in the back of the house and came back with some cake and tea. "Sorry, I just found that you must be hungry somehow." She smiled. "Go ahead, drink and eat to your heart's delight."

She took a sip from her tea before she started talking again. "Well, it's quite simple. Even if we all are searched for for one reason or another, I'm still a medic, and you are too. We practice that way, and healing is much more difficult than killing. I don't want to be a simple killer, Sakura. Battlefields are not the place I belong to, neither do you really. The guys might enjoy fighting and hurting people, but I don't. They will get hurt, and they will get in trouble now and then. And then they come to me to get rid of the the injuries. And as that, we're an important part of the chain. If they would rest like normal people, they would have less time to operate."

Sakura, who had stuffed her mouth with some of the delicious, pink cake she had taken from the tablet, nodded silently, agreeing with the woman. She felt the need to learn from this kunoichi in front of her, no matter what will come. She seemed to know much about medicine, medical jutsu and herbal treatments, and also seemed to be neutral person more then a criminal.

"Oh, I forgot..." Oneesan clapped her hands together in surprise. "What a sheep I am, you have no headprotector! You're from Konoha, right? I'll see what I have in my little trophy-chest." With that, she again disappeared into the small room, making rumpling sounds, sounds like she shattered glass, sounds like metal was clashing together.

Sakura in the meanwhile was slowly reducing the cake and drinking tea, asking herself what the hell the woman was doing in the back of the house.

When she finally came back, she faced a full Sakura and an empty plate, smiling satisfied and handing Sakura a Leaf-headprotector on a green sash. "Sorry, this is the only color I got beside blue, and blue is like totally not your color, girl." Before Sakura could grab the protector, Oneesand pulled it back, looking at it. "I totally forgot, sorry." And with that, she snapped against the metal, making it do a strange sound.

And when Sakura looked at it, she understood.

The Leaf was cracked.

And so was her past.

_**The End...?**_

_**To be continued...**_

--- 

**Right, that's the end of this first part of this story. **

**There will be a sequel, but I don't know when I will start it. It will be called "Swamp", so note it and don't forget to read when it starts :D**

**Note:**

** Oneesan is the japanese phrase for Big Sister/Older Sister. This is because the name of the Akatsuki kunoichi withe the flower hairpin isn't revealed yet, so I had to think about a resolution for it. Forgive me! As soon as she gets a offical name, I'll put it into the story too. **


End file.
